A Very Masky Christmas
by kdandsheela
Summary: For those looking for a heart-warming story about one of the many villians in this world who don't understand the consept of Christmas...look no furthur! Masquerade, through trail and error, is taught the meaning of Christmas spirit! :D
1. December 1st The Horror Begins!

A/N

kd: Hello readers! If you're looking for some lame, cheesy Shun x Alice Christmas story (no offence to anyone who writes/reads that kind of stuff), then you came to the wrong place. If you're looking for a fanfic in which Masquerade gets turned into a girl, then you're also looking in the wrong place, though you can find that one under JetRavenEX's profile. But you know what? I could go on and on about—

Masquerade: GET ON WITH IT!

kd: How rude 3=…like I was saying =D. I could go on and on about what this story _isn't_ so I'm just going to tell you what it _is_.

Hydranoid: _Finally_!

kd: (ignoring comment) This is basically a Christmas Carol only with Masquerade in it. Now I'm a little more creative then to (fully) copy great books such as Christmas Carol, this is meant to be more comedy and will _not_ be (or close to) an exact copy of the Christmas Carol, so ummm, enjoy =D.

Hydranoid: Are you done yet?

kd: We still need to make a disclaimer O.o

Masquerade + Hydranoid: (groans)

kd: Oh comon' you sissies, it's just _one_ disclaimer.

Masquerade: Do we really _need_ one? We all know anyone who bothers writing on this site actually don't _own_ any part of the series they write for.

kd: So?

Masquerade: _So_ there's no point to it.

kd: Gosh, fine, _I'll_ do it! Ummm, sorry but I don't own baka—I mean! Bakugan =D…yeah, that's what I meant…

* * *

December 1st

It was a cold, snowy night and a shady teenager with spiky blonde hair was walking down the street.

"Masky? When can we brawl?"

"I told you not to call me that in public…"

"But no one's here!" Hydranoid protested.

"I don't care that no one's here…it's kind of nice, actually."

"Whoa! Did Masky just say something was _nice_?" Hydranoid asked in surprised.

Masquerade growled, "It's not like I'm the Christmas grouch."

"Close to it…"

"Alright then, no Christmas specials for you," Masquerade said with a satisfied grin.

"What! I've never even seen Frosty the Snowman before! Don't ruin my Christmas for me!" Hydranoid wined, "How could you be so cruel?"

Masquerade took Hydranoid off his shoulder and dropped him into the snow, "Chill out, they're only cartoons." Masquerade smirked as Hydranoid shivered in the snow looking up helplessly at his master.

"Bu-but, they're not _just_ normal cartoons. They're CHRISTMAS CARTOONS!"

"It doesn't matter what the subject is, cartoons are cartoons. What's so great about this _Christmas_ these people are so obsessed about, anyways?"

"It's the time of year when all humans can overcome their differences and come together in world peace and joy and unity :D," Hydranoid said in a sing-songy voice.

"…Hydranoid…do me a favor, and _never_ try to make me gag again…"

"D: I wasn't _trying_ to make you gag, I was just trying to tell you what Christmas is all about…*mumbles* you could learn a thing or two from this holiday…"

"_What_ was that Hydranoid?"

"I mean…you look very handsome today, sir, it must be the evening light."

Masquerade chuckled and picked Hydranoid up off the ground. "I _thought_ that's what you said, but seriously, would you rather be spending the whole day brawling, or sitting on your butt watching holiday specials?"

"Hmmm…"

"_Hydranoid_…," Masquerade said warningly, "Do you actually need to _think_ about it? Isn't the answer obvious?"

"You're right, it _is_ obvious. I'd rather watch Christmas specials all day!" Hydranoid said happily.

Masquerade slapped his forehead, "God, I can't _wait_ for this holiday to be over. Hydranoid when does this holiday end?"

"It ends on the 26th, the day after Christmas."

"You mean this holiday lasts a _whole month_?"

"Yeah! Isn't it great?"

"Why does this holiday last so long?"

"Well…the actual _day_ of Christmas is the 25th but people start celebrating much earlier."

"But _why_? Do people really have that much free time to start celebrating a holiday _twenty-four_ days before it actually _happens_?"

"Oh comon', Masquerade! It's called getting into the spirit of Christmas!"

"I wish this 'spirit' would go and kill all of the fools who ever have or ever will utter the words _world peace_ again…"

"Ummm…I think they mean the _joy_ of Christmas not the _ghost_ of Christmas when they say the spirit of Christmas…"

"It would make much more sense as ghost of Christmas, plus I'm getting tired with all this talk about _joy_, and _world peace_." He said the words _joy_ and _world peace_ as if they were the most poisonous words that had ever formed upon his lips.

"You know what? I think I have heard of a ghost of Christmas in one of the holiday specials. I think they were three of them…"

"Oh please Hydranoid, now you're telling me that you believe in world peace _and_ ghosts?"

"I think I remember that they were hunting this old and bitter guy that would always mutter BAHHUMBUG at random situations."

"God, what a horrible catch-phrase"

* * *

**A/N:**

Masquerade: …

Hydranoid: …

kd: Oh comeon', it's not _that_ bad!

Masquerade: Well…

kd: You're lucky I'm not turning you into a girl!

Masquerade: (looks shaken but still calm) you're lucky you still _look_ like a girl.

kd: Well, Masky if I didn't look like a girl, what would I look like? O.O

Maquerade: Ummm… O.O

kd: Anyways…Happy Holidays =D

Masquerade:…Holiday_s_ with an 's'? You mean there's more than one?


	2. December 1st The Frosty Puddle

**A/N:**

kd: WOOT! Second chapter!

Masquerade: Big deal…

kd: Why do you have to rain on _everybody's_ parade?

Masquerade: Because I don't like parades.

kd: But everybody like parades =D

Masquerade: Well then, I guess I'm not everybody.

kd: Okay okay, fine, but would _someone_ please do the disclaimer?

Masquerade: *sight* kd doesn't own me or any other part of bakugan…

* * *

Later that night…

"NOOO! FROSTY! Don't go into the green house! You'll melt!" Hydranoid yelled at the Television. "How can she be cold when she's wearing all those layers? With mittens! NOOO! FROST'S MEALTING! GOODBYE CRUEL WORLD!"

Masquerade couldn't stop himself from grinning listening to his bakugan weep for the life of a _snowman_. It seemed so unusual to him that children…and some bakugan…would get so attached to a pile of moving snow if you gave it fake human qualities. "Hydranoid…_Hydranoid_! Get a hold of yourself, man!" He yelled, picking up the crying bakugan. "It's just…a puddle -.-;;"

"He used to be _more_ than a puddle! He used to be a _person_!"

"Ummm…he used to be a _snowman_…a formation of _snow_ that _looks_ like a person…"

"No! You don't get it! There was uh-um…oh yeah! There was this magic hat! And when they put it on his head he began to dance around! (now starting to sing) OOOOOOHHH! Frosty the snowman, was a very jolly—"

"Stop this Hydranoid! You're going to drive me crazy…if you sing _one more note_ of any Christmas tune, I swear I am going to—"

"Wait! It's Santa :D! _Shhhhhhh_, he's going to do something important!"

"Who? The fat guy? Why would he be doing something important?"

"Because he's _Santa Claus_, he's always doing important things in the movies."

"Like what?"

"He has the most important job in the world! He lives in the North Pole and keeps an eye on all of the children of the world. He watches you all year to see if you've been naughty or nice. If you're naughty you get a lump of coal in your stocking but if you're nice you get lots of presents! He has a workforce of elves in the North Pole to make all the presents. Then on Christmas Eve he flies around the whole world with a sly flew by a troop of eight reindeer, nine if you include Rudolf."

Masky was silent for a moment then he started laughing his guts out, "_Elves_? _Flying reindeer_? AHAHA! Hydranoid…you _do_ realize this is one giant fairytale that adults made up so that their children wouldn't misbehave, right?"

"What do you mean D: ?"

"I _mean_ that Santa doesn't exist, it's all one big myth to stop children from fighting over candy canes."

"No! You're wrong!" Hydranoid said angrily, "Santa is real! You'll see once we get our presents from him!"

"Ummm…Hydranoid? We're _villains_, we're not going to get any presents because we're _naughty_." Masquerade said with a grin.

"_You're_ the naughty one. You send bakugan to the doom dimension."

"Yes but _you're_ the one who willingly helps me."

"But…" Hydranoid trailed off sadly. He jumped off the couch and rolled away in depression.

"Okaaay…that was totally weird." Masquerade said to himself. He turned his face toward the TV to see what had changed Hydranoid so much. He watched as Santa scolded the magician and said that he wouldn't get anymore magic tricks for Christmas unless he changed frosty back into a snowman. "Oh god, this is so lame…" he said before turning off the TV. He got up and looked for Hydranoid.

The downside of having a mansion? A game of hide-and-seek with a marble-seized living ball is like trying to find a needle in a twenty foot haystack. Hydranoid hides in a handful of places when he's angry at Masquerade but there are some highly reserved spots he has for when he was truly upset. Masquerade looked in the usual places first. He looked in all the potted plants. He thoroughly looked in any of the kitchen cabinets that were left slightly ajar. He looked inside his dresser drawers and the top shelf inside his closest but the black and purple bakugan was no where to be found…

Masquerade went to his bedroom window and sighed. _Where could the nut job be? And how could this stupid human holiday hold any value to him?_ Masquerade thought as he watched a small black object struggling to push through the thick, powdery snow. Masquerade threw up his window to get a better look, "Wait a minute…_Hydranoid_?" he called in surprise. The bakugan did not reply. Masquerade closed his window and rushed down stairs to get his coat.

"Hydranoid? What in the world are you doing?"

"I'm making a snowman!" he said distantly.

"Hydranoid…you don't have opposable thumbs! And you can't even roll around without sinking into the snow!"

"Then _you_ make a snowman for me!"

"Hydranoid…"

"_PLEASE_?"

"…Well…since you said please, _no_."

"D: Well at least tell me what happened at the end of the movie!"

"Oh yeah, the girl collected the water from his puddle and took turns drinking it with Santa in a sacred Eskimo ritual in which you drink the remains of a magic snowman to gain immortality."

"O.O…Hey! Wait a minute! That's not what happened!"

"You think so?"

"What _really_ happened?"

"What else? Santa saved the day." Masquerade said as he picked up Hydranoid and walked back toward the mansion.

"…Can we decorate the house for Christmas?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because our 'house' is fifty feet tall and it would make the electric bill cost over ten thousand dollars."

"…You're just saying no because you hate Christmas."

"Exactly." Masquerade said with a grin.

**

* * *

**

**A/N:**

Masquerade: 'Tis the season to be someplace where they _don't_ celebrate Christmas.

kd: Oh comon' Masky! Have a little fun with this!

Masquerade: And how do I do that?

kd: This is a time in which you can talk to the general public.

Masquerade: The _general public_? How does _three readers_ count as the _general public_?

kd: I have more than three readers!

Masquerade: I only see three reviews so far…

kd: Not _all_ my readers are going to review (though they should). Would you just say something useful already?

Masquerade: Fine. Ummm…hey all of kd's very few readers *dodges kd's kick*, don't be one of those obnoxious people who completely cover their yards in Christmas decorations, you know the ones that blind people as they drive down the street with all the lights and the giant inflatable snow globes, _you_ know who you are. Well, STOP IT! There are a lot less annoying ways to express your 'holiday spirit' and think about what you're doing to the environment!

kd: Wow Masquerade…I didn't think you cared about the environment…

Masquerade: I don't, I'm just saying this in behalf of Hydranoid who of which I cannot find.

Hydranoid: Hi general public!

kd: Hydranoid! Where were you?

Hydranoid: I was hiding in Masquerade's closest.

kd: Oh, um, yeah…that doesn't sound weird at all O.O…


	3. December 2st The Brawlers did WHAT?

**A/N:**

kd: An apology to my readers…I forgot to mention that for time saving purposes Masquerade will _not_ be connected with Alice, yet I may use such a reference as a joke in this chapter so keep your eye out!

Masquerade: Great! I don't have to be associated with that loser…

kd: That's mean Masky!

Masquerade: My name's _not_ Masky! It's Masquerade for crying out loud! Is it _really_ that hard?

kd: It is if you constantly have to write it -.-…

Masquerade: My name's only *starts to count letters off of hand* ten letters…

kd: Masquerade, my real name has half that many letters and your name is _five times_ as long as my abbreviated username.

Masquerade: Wow! *says in fake praise* It looks like _someone's_ good at math!

Hydranoid: I call not doing the disclaimer!

Masquerade: -.-…

kd: Don't worry Hydranoid, I've invited a friend to do the disclaimer and to be interviewed! Ladies and gentleman, here's Terradoll!

Terradoll: Hello everyone!

kd: So Terra, who's currently your favorite character in any series?

Terradoll: Probably L from Death Note.

kd: Favorite bakugan character?

Terradoll: Defiantly Masquerade!

Hydranoid: Wait! Masquerade actually has a _fangirl_?

Masquerade: Hydranoid, you're not supposed to look so surprised.

Hydranoid: But I am! I mean, _Masquerade_…_fangirl_? I can't even believe those two words are in the same sentence!

Masquerade: You're just jealous! How many Hydranoid fangirls do _you_ see?

Hydranoid: Well…

Masquerade: That's what I thought.

kd: Guys, stop bullying each other! Ok then! Back to interviewing the Masquerade fangirl! So anyways, Terradoll, what are the kinds of fanfic you like to read and write?

Terradoll: I like to read OC fanfics or ones where Ash (from pokemon) gets hurt or dies. And I like to write fanfics about romances between me and Masquerade and fanfics where Ash is getting hurt or dying.

Hydranoid: You must really hate this Ash guy O.O…

Terradoll: Yes, very much ^.^

Hydranoid: …

Masquerade: …

Hydranoid: Can you do the disclaimer now, lady?

Terradoll: kd doesn't own any part of bakugan…if she _did_ I'd force her to put Masquerade in every single episode!

* * *

December 2nd 6:00 A.M. At Masquerade's Mansion

"MAAAASQUERAAADE!" a voice called from the first floor of the mansion. Masquerade covered his ears by folding his pillow around his head. He pulled the covers over his head and tried to go back to sleep. "OHHH MAAAASSSKY!" the voice continued. Masquerade threw the covers up and marched downstairs in anger. He looked around for the early-bird bakugan and found him at the front door.

"What?" Masquerade snapped.

"You've got mail :D" Hydranoid said imitating an old computer notice.

"Oh, goody," Masquerade said with fake delight while picking up the single white envelope, "It's probably our electricity bill, I thought I told you not to light up the house."

"But I didn't D:"

"_Sure_ you didn't."

"Well…"

"Hydranoid!"

"Look, the envelope! It doesn't look like a regular bill…"

"It-it's from the Brawlers," Masquerade said in true surprise, "It says I'm invited to their Christmas party…"

* * *

December 2nd 11:00 A.M. at Marocho's Mansion where the brawlers meet.

"You _did what_?" Runo asked, shocked from this brave (and maybe incredibly stupid) act.

"Ummm…yeah, I invited Masquerade…please don't hurt me…" Alice said timidly.

"I'm not going to _hurt_ you Alice but I _am_ clueless to why you invited that heart-less, Christmas-hating…" Runo ranted but trailed off as she started running out of bad things to call him.

"Ummm…grinch?" Marucho offered.

"Yes! A grinch!" Runo yelled.

"Well, Mrs. 'Christmas Spirit', maybe if you let Alice explain herself she may give us a clue to why she invited 'The Grinch'." Shun said matter-of-factly as he waved his hand toward Alice, encouraging her to continue.

"Ummm, yes, well. It's just that…I doubt Masquerade has anyone to celebrate Christmas with, shouldn't everyone have the chance to celebrate Christmas? It's the time of year when people can overcome each other's differences and come together to celebrate, so Masquerade should be one of the people we celebrate with." Alice said almost passionately. The room was silent. Then…

"Alice, as nice as that sounds…people just don't work that way…" Shun said mildly sad.

"Yeah and I doubt he'll even bring the required secret Santa gift!" Julie said angrily.

"Ummm, Julie…Christmas parties aren't _just_ about the gifts…" Alice spoke softly, "Plus I made him my secret Santa so if he forgets then I just won't get a present."

"Why is it that Alice is the person who assigns the secret Santas?" Dan complained.

"Because there are some people in this world who can keep a secret and others who simply can't, _Dan_." Shun commented smugly toward Dan.

"Oh please! Like 'Mr. Hotshot' here could keep a secret longer than me!"

"Dan, you still wet your bed…"

"What? O/O WHO TOLD YOU THAT!"

"_You_ did, genius! Dan, you can't even keep your _own_ secrets let alone whose secret Santa is whose! That's why we have Alice do it, we all know at least _she_ can keep a secret."

"Maybe _too_ many secrets…" Julie said suspiciously. The rest of the brawlers just stared at her then looked toward Alice.

"Ummm, I'm guessing _not_," said Shun.

"Ditto," Runo commented.

"Me three!" Marucho added. The room grew quieter as there were other murmurs of agreement. Alice _could_ keep a secret but she didn't have _that_ kind of secret…right?

* * *

December 2nd 2:00 P.M. At some random mall…

"Deck the halls with balls of holly! Fa lalalalala la la lala! 'Tis the season to be jolly! Fa lalalalala la la lala!" a group of Choralers sang with obnoxious cheer. A little boy playing the hand bells for the group kicked a tin can, for collecting money, toward Masquerade as he walked by. Masquerade spit his gum into it. The little boy stopped jingling the bells as he looked up sadly at Masquerade. Masquerade just grinned evilly at the small, helpless boy. Masquerade didn't think much about the evil act as he walked into a large department store until he heard his annoying shoulder pest speak up.

"What was _that_?" Hydranoid said in despise.

"I just gave them a tip."

"In _gum_!"

"But it was the winter green flavor, very Christmasy, right?" Masquerade asked with a crooked grin.

"It's not like you gave them a stick of gum you spit out your old gum into their can!"

"Details, details…"

"THEY STAND OUT IN THE COLD TO SPREAD CHRISTMAS CHEER AND YOU GAVE THEM ALREADY CHEWED GUM! They're just trying to make an honest buck or two…"

"There wasn't much money there anyways."

"I think they made a good amount of money."

"Not anymore. I swiped twenty bucks from them when the 'little drummer boy' wasn't looking." Masquerade gave another crooked smile as he waved a twenty-dollar bill at Hydranoid.

"B-but…_why_?"

"This way I don't have to pay for Alice's stupid present," Masquerade said while he started browsing the shelves, "It's a win-win situation!" Hydranoid just gloomily scanned the shelves as they walked through the gardening department. Hydranoid needed Christmas cheer…and fast. It was a good thing the party was tomorrow, maybe he could show his master how great Christmas really was, after all he _did_ learn about the joys of Christmas from the brawlers…well, _kind of_…

* * *

So obviously Hydranoid plans to teach Masquerade about Christmas himself, hoping that this party will help him reach his goal but does he _really_ believe that Masquerade is going there at will? And what does Masquerade think about all this? Will he try to get on the Nice list or will he stay where he used to be when Santa goes and checks his list twice? Maybe we'll have to go back in time to figure this one out…

* * *

December 2nd 6:00 A.M. At Masquerade's Mansion (Masky POV)

"MAAAASQUERAAADE!" I heard an annoying voice call from downstairs. Oh god, why is Hydranoid calling me at…I looked at my alarm clock, 6 A.M.! If he's trying to show me a Christmas special I swear I'm going to—"OHHH MAAAASSSKY!" That was the last straw!

"Darn it, Hydranoid! I told not to call me that!" I hissed as I climbed down the stairs. I had to find him and shut him up before he drove me crazy! I found him near the front door standing on top of a white envelope.

"You've got mail :D" Hydranoid said in a bad imitation of a computer. I flicked him off the letter and picked it up.

"Oh goody," I muttered. We never get any mail, just bills and taxes, and that was fine with me. Because Hydranoid went through all this trouble to wake me up over a stupid bill I thought I'd tease him, "It's probably our electricity bill, I thought I told you not to light up the house."

"But I didn't D:"

"_Sure_ you didn't." I said sarcastically, he's so gullible XD.

"Well…"

"Hydranoid!" I yelled. I was _wondering_ why there were lights on our indoor fern…

Hydranoid with a fearful look in his eyes tried to change the subject, "Look, the envelope! It doesn't look like a regular bill…" He was right, it didn't have the clear window in the middle like normal bills did, I carefully opened the envelope. The letter was handwritten in girly cursive.

_Dear Masquerade,_

_DEAR_? Who in the world would address a letter like this to me? I honestly thought the first hand-made letter sent to me would be a death threat or ransom request for Hydranoid fashioned in cut-out magazine letters. This was unexpected…I went to the end of the letter to see who sent it.

_Sincerely,_

_The Brawlers_

"It-it's from the Brawlers," I said shocked. I went back to the top of the letter and read the first sentence.

You're invited to the Brawlers' Christmas part!

"It says I'm invited to their Christmas party…"

"Start at the top and read it out loud!" Hydranoid said excitedly.

"Dear Masquerade,

_You're invited to the Brawlers' Christmas part! The party will take at Marucho's Mansion and start at 8:00 A.M.. We w ill also be using a secret santa system, in which all guests will have to bring a present to the person they were assigned to, you will bring a gift for Alice. If you cannot make it please make to call one of the brawlers so that someone isn't waiting for a secret santa that never comes. So we hope to see you there! Sincerely, The Brawlers__…"_

"…" Hydranoid was silent and had this distant look on his face.

"…" _This can't be happening_, I thought.

"You've got to go."

"What!"

"I don't want you to die alone in a retirement home!"

"O.O…What?"

"Just…never mind…" Hydranoid said sadly. Wait a minute…I looked at the top of the letter again. _The party will take at Marucho's Mansion_. I tried to stop a smile from spreading across my face. Marucho's the little brat that collects and keeps every brawlers' data. He probably stores his data into a computer so chances are is that this computer is at his house! It would make serching for minions and defeating future opponents much more easier if I knew about all of their moves before hand!

"You know what Hydranoid? I think I'll go to this party."

"R-r-really? :O"

"Yeah, sure. What harm could there be in one little party?"

"Yay! Now all we need is Alice's present! :D"

"Oh yeah…" I said unenthusiastically.

* * *

December 2nd 6:00 A.M. At Masquerade's Mansion (Hydranoid POV)

So there I was, a peacefully resting bakugan, and then…a giant white rectangle fell on me!

"AHHHHH! I CAN'T SEE!" I screamed as the giant rectangle suffocated me…although bakugan can't suffocate because they don't need to breath in ball form so…I just rolled out from under the rectangle. As I was rolling out I realized that it was an envelope. Oh, I get. I must have fell asleep under the mail slot…not my best move…wow, the bills have come already? It seems like they come earlier each month! Oh well, I'll just have Masquerade deal with it. "MAAAASQUERAAADE!" I yelled. I heard some rustling from upstairs but I knew he wasn't out of bed yet. Time to use my secret weapon…"OHHH MAAAASSSKY!" I called, that always gets him going XD. And it worked too because I heard someone stomping down the stairs soon after that. I saw his blonde, spiky hair as he looked around for me.

"What?" he snapped at me. Hmmm, looks like _someone_ isn't a morning person…

I looked up at him and said, "You've got mail :D" imitating his computer when he gets an e-mail. He bent down and flicked me off the envelope. "Ow," I muttered as I hit the wall.

I saw Masquerade roll his eyes at me and then said, "Oh goody, it's probably our electricity bill, I thought I told you not to light up the house." Oh no! How' he find out? He probably saw though I tried to hide it.

I recomposed myself and whined, "But I didn't D:"

"_Sure_ you didn't." he didn't believe me! Might as well come clean.

"Well…"

"Hydranoid!" he yelled as if he had just found out…oh I get it, he was just pulling my leg -.-;;. But it's _his_ fault we don't have a Christmas tree! All I could find to light up was this stupid fern, and it couldn't even hold up a star! Uh-oh it looks like he's going to throw me at the wall again! I need to think quick. I looked up at the envelope and saw that there wasn't a clear window on it like a bill.

"Look, the envelope! It doesn't look like a regular bill…" I squeaked. I saw Masquerade looking over the letter with caution, as if expecting poisonous dart to pop out. He slowly opened it and scanned the top of the letter. Something ruined his composure and a certain emotion spread across his face. What's going on? Masquerade's showing emotion!…Is he broken?

"It-it's from the Brawlers…it says I'm invited to their Christmas party…" Masquerade said in a shocked voice. How could this have happened? The brawlers hated us…right? I was defiantly intrigued.

"Start at the top and read it out loud!" I demanded. As Masquerade stared reading it I realized how this happened, Tigrerra must have pulled some strings. Masquerade's voice grew more distant as I started to fantasize about the day Tigrerra first taught me about Christmas…

* * *

It was a cold November night and Masquerade was super irritated at me for some reason. He threw me out his bedroom window and when I hit the hard ground I yelled up at him, "I'm going to the brawlers, at least _they_ know how to treat bakugan fairly!"

"See what I care! It's not like you can just _roll_ the whole way there, it's too far away!" he yelled as he angrily slammed the window shut. Little did he know that I took his dimensional transporter…I transported to Runo's room, where I would find Tigrerra. Me and Tigrerra have been secretly dating for the past two months, the whole secrecy idea is Tigrerra's but I don't care what other people say, I love Tigrerra! She's probably ashamed of my Master's actions but that won't stop me from being close to her and if the entire world knows, then I still wouldn't care, she's _my_ Tigrerra, and in all honesty…she's kinda hot ;D! So anyways…when I teleported to Runo's room Tigrerra recognized the light-show produced from the dimensional transporter and hopped from the top of Runo's dresser to the windowsill where I appeared.

"Hydranoid!" she greeted me.

"Hi Tigrerra…" I said dazed by her beauty. She had jumped down off of Runo's dresser and had rolled toward me in total grace. Her white skin glowed heavenly reflecting the moonlight that seeped through the window.

"You may stop staring now."

"Sorry." I said embarrassed. She just giggled. Tigrerra looked down at the card I was standing on.

"Is that how you got here? You used the dimensional transporter? How did you sneak it past Masquerade?"

"I sneaked the dimensional transporter into the yard earlier today so when he threw me out the window I could use it."

"He's going to be ticked off when he finds out you took it." she said gleefully. I could tell she enjoyed the idea of my Master waking up the next morning and realizing his dimensional transporter was gone…

"You're right, he is…I don't like being yelled at by me master…" I said quietly. Tigrerra looked guilty.

"I'm sorry Hydranoid, I just wish Masquerade was a little nicer to you…"

"Yeah, well, we all know _that's_ not going to happen." I said in spite. Tigrerra looked at me with sympathy, which warmed my heart and made me feel like I was melting in her hands. We just stood there in silence for a moment, it's never awkward silence but I don't know how to explain it, it's like, we're silently talking to each other through our eyes. Yeah, I know, right? Kinda mushy…but that's how it feels! I broke eye contact for a moment because something caught my eye. I looked out the window to see millions of white flakes slowly drift to the ground in an otherworldly kind of grace. "W-what _are_ those?" I asked Tigrerra. She looked out the window too, and I saw a type of joy in her eyes.

"It's snow!" Tigrerra said with excitement.

"Snow?"

"It's like…fluffy ice that falls from the sky."

"No…way…" I said in amazement.

"It means Christmas is coming!"

"Christmas?" I asked, Tigrerra stared at me.

"You don't know what Christmas is?" she asked with surprise.

"Well…no"

"Christmas is the time of year when people all over the world can come together in peace and harmony to celebrate the birthday of the human savior."

"That…is…AWESOME!" I stated.

"Yeah but I wouldn't bring it up with your master…"

"Why not?"

"I doubt he'd understand it."

"I think he'll understand…well…probably not…but!

Tigrerra sighed, "Hydranoid, do you know what happens to people who don't believe in the spirit of Christmas?"

"What happens O.O?"

"They die alone…in retirement homes…"

"O.O…I don't want my mater to die alone…"

"Then you need to teach him the true meaning of Christmas before it's too late!"

"I shall!" Ok, so, _I_ hardly knew the true meaning for Christmas yet but if I was going to learn about it then Masquerade was going to learn about it too! He had too…or else…

* * *

As I returned to reality I heard Masquerade say the last two lines of the letter.

"_Sincerely,_

_The Brawlers_"

"You've got to go." I knew what I had to do to save Masquerade from a lonely death...

"What!" Masquerade demanded. Ok, so I get how he thinks he's the master in this relationship but I just need him to go to this party!

"I don't want you to die alone in a retirement home!" I tried to explain myself.

"O.O…_What_?"

"Just…never mind…" Well, looks like he's going to die alone anyways, might as well give up. My master looked thoughtfully at the letter and then the strangest thing happened…it looked like he was trying to fight back a smile! He only smiles when he's thinking of something evil…but…what could it be?

"You know what Hydranoid? I think I'll go to this party."

"R-r-really? :O" I asked in complete surprise. What's going on?

"Yeah, sure. What harm could there be in one little party?" he said as a grin fully evolved on his face. There might still be a chance!

"Yay! Now all we need is Alice's present! :D" My master might be able to die…not-alone!

"Oh yeah…" he said with something other than excitement…could this be too good to be true?

* * *

So…yeah. While Masquerade is thinking up some plot to make this party to his pure advantage Hydranoid is more happy than suspicious about his decision to go. So what will be the outcome of the Christmas party? Will Hydranoid and Tigrerra announce their love to everyone? What horrors wait for Masquerade as he goes to a party that's solely focused on the holiday he hates the most? Will Hydranoid truly understand the meaning of Christmas _himself_ or will he not be able to see past the commercial part of it? Will Masquerade die alone? Probably…

Masquerade: Hey! Don't add that last part!

kd: I can write whatever I want to!

Masquerade: No you can't! *starts dressing into a Santa costume* Stop this! Ok, I get it! You're crazy enough to write random crap!

kd: Thank you ^.^ Oh, and Masquerade? Red is _not_ your color.

Masquerade: _Never_ speak of this again!

Hydranoid: Hey guys…_SANTA_?

Masquerade: No, wait, Hydran—

Hydranoid: kd! How'd you manage to get _Santa_ here for an interview? :D

Masquerade: -.-…Hydranoid? It's me…

Hydranoid: Well, _duh_, I know it's _you_, Santa.

kd: …

Masquerade: …

Hydranoid: So what's your favorite kind of cookie? Tigrerra says you like chocolate chip best but I think you prefer something a little more Christmasy, like gingerbread, am I right?

Masquerade: …

Hydranoid: Oh and…by the way? To all of kd's readers…if there are any Hydranoid fangirls out there…

Tigrerra: _What_ was that Hydranoid?

Hydranoid: Tigrerra! How did _you_ get here?

Masquerade: Looks like someone's been a naughty boy, Hydranoid XD

Hydranoid: No, wait! It's not what it looks like!

kd: Well, anyways, thanks to all my readers and reviewers! And I wish you all a merry Christmas! Oh and I've been expirimenting with the POV's since I'm so used to 3rd person, I tried to add more detail to each one but if reading the same scene over again was too boring, feel free to tell me so! I won't take it personally! I just don't want to be a misguilded fanfic writer! Happy Holidays~


	4. December 3rd Fighting and Loving

**A/N:**

Kd: Hello everyone! I'm back! And with a bigger and better chapter yet…and I also brought my friend-

Jet: HELLO PEEPS!

Kd: -JetRavenEX -.-;;

Jet: Only the 'J' and the 'E' are capitalized!

Kd: Like it _matters_. -.-

Jet: *looking around* Where's Masky?

Masquerade: I _told_ you not to call me that!

Kd: Hmmm…hey Masquerade, wanna know the nick-name I gave Jet that she hates?

Masquerade: YES!

Kd: Ahaha, I'm sure you would.

Jet: *looking relieved* phew…can I hug him now?

Kd: Anyways…you all can thank Jet for this story beside there's no way in heck I'd write this of free will, and since it was a long time since I've updated this story, this chapter is dedicated to Jet.

Jet: What? I only get this chapter?

Kd: What more did you want? O.O

Jet: I want the whole story!

Kd: Alright, fine, as of now the story 'A Very Masky Christmas' is now dedicated to Jet.

Masquerade: What a minute, why is my fangirl name in the title?

Hydranoid: Hi, general public! Hey kd, why is it that you always seem to have a writer in the A/N's but you never manage to hook up with Santa?

Kd: God, I can never make _everyone_ happy, can I?

Jet: …

Hydranoid: …

Masky: I just don't like being called 'Masky', wait a minute, YOU MADE IT MY SCRIPT NAME!

Jet: Oh and kd does not own anything in bakugan.

* * *

December 3rd Marucho's mansion…

"This is great! Almost everybody's here!" Alice said happily.

"Except _Masquerade_." Dan said with spite.

"Wait a minute, Masquerade's coming?" asked Billy.

"Try not to mention it but it was Alice's idea." Julie whispered to Billy. Alice frowned a bit as she suspected Julie whispered something about her. Shun put his hand on Alice's shoulder.

"You did the right thing." Shun comforted Alice. _She defiantly _did_ do the right thing because Masquerade's never coming, anyways_. Shun thought triumphantly.

"Thank you…Shun" Alice said with a smile. The Brawlers decided that they would just have to start the party without Masquerade. And now the secret Santa gift exchange started. Shun was assigned to be Dan's secret Santa. Dan looked at the strangely shaped present as Shun was about to hand it over.

"What…is it?" Dan asked.

"You need to _open_ it before you find out." Shun said impatiently. He handed the small present to Dan who almost dropped it.

"This weighs a lot more than I expected, what is it, _a rock_?" Dan asked, and to his dismay, it _was_ a rock. "Why did you give me a _rock_, Shun?"

"It's a pet rock." 'Mr. Hotshot' said rather matter-of-factly.

"Why in the world do I need a pet rock when I have _talking bakugan_?"

"Well, I think you two have a lot in common." Shun said with a smirk as Dan just continued to stare at the rock. _He's trying to tell me something…I just don't know what!_ Dan thought angrily.

"Shun, I don't weigh that much!" Dan yelled misunderstanding the hidden insult. Shun smacked his forehead.

"Shun, it's not nice to make fun of people's weight." Alice spoke up.

"That's not what I meant to do!" Shun said. _Am I the _only _smart person among the brawlers?_ Shun thought. Then Marucho saw the message.

"It's not nice to call Dan dumb either!" he said. _Bingo!_ Shun though, _At least _someone _got it!_

"Where did you find this rock, Shun? It's starting to glow weirdly." Dan observed but Shun merely ignored the comment and moved toward Alice.

"I got you a gift in case Masquerade didn't show up."

"Shun…you didn't need to do that," Alice said softly.

"I did it anyways." Shun said with a smile. Alice returned the smile as she reached out for the present Shun was _about_ to hand her until—

"Hello everyone." A masked boy said in a menacing voice, a smile that matched his voice was plastered on his face. The room grew silent as the blonde continued to enter. "Sorry I'm late." Masquerade lied through his teeth. He turned to Alice and held out his present, "I believe _this_ is for you." You could see he make no attempt to wrap it as there was only a decorative bow attached to the top of the stuffed animal's head.

"A tiger! My favorite animal! How did you know?" Alice's face lit up as she completely forgot about the present Shun was about to give her.

"A little voice told me."

"And _I_ would be that voice!" Hydranoid said popping out from Masquerade's pocket.

"Oh, Hydranoid! The other bakugan are in the next room over, watching T.V." Alice said as she pointed to the entrance that leaded to the other bakugan. The rest of the room was still very silent, as the partiers had all stopped what they were doing to watch Masquerade's entrance.

"Thank you so much, Masquerade! Here's your present!" She said as she handed Masquerade a small rectangular present with an open-able lid. Masquerade looked at it curiously and then took off the lid. Masquerade started at the contents of the box for a while before lifting it up from the box.

"They're…sunglasses…" he said in a weird tone of voice.

"Why don't you try them on?" Alice said slyly.

"Alright then." Masquerade said. He started to slowly slide his mask off. You could visibly see everyone lean toward Masquerade as he slowly exposed his face, it seemed as if even the walls were leaning in. His blonde eyebrows peaked from above his mask and then…"Just kidding!"Masquerade quickly pushed his mask back up and laughed loudly. _These guys are too EASY!_ Masquerade thought as he could see disappointment on everyone's faces, even Alice's. For some reason seeing Alice's face made him stop laughing and after a moment of silence he said, "Thanks for the sunglasses, Alice, but I'm not going to try them on _here_."

"Sure, I understand." Alice said sadly.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Hydranoid said enthusiastically.

"…What's _he_ doing here?" Drago said.

Tigrerra nudged Drago, "He's here as a guest! It's good to see you Hydranoid!" Tigrerra greeted Hydranoid warmly.

_Whoa! What's up with Tigrerra?_ Drago thought as he was thrown back by Tigrerra's warmer than necessary greeting.

"What are you guys watching?" Hydranoid said excitedly.

_Who is this guy and what did he do to Hydranoid!_ Drago thought suspiciously but felt it impolite to speak his mind as such.

"Hello Hydranoid. We are watching a Charlie Brown's Christmas." Gorem tried to explain.

"…Who's Charlie Brown?" Hydranoid asked.

"Come up here and find out!" Tigrerra invited as they were calling down from the top of the couch facing the TV. Hydranoid hopped up the cushions and made it to the top, settling next to Tigrerra.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late, guys," Joe apologized as he walked into the party room, though his entrance was not treated with as much attention as Masquerade's. Regardless, Alice greeted him warmly as she did for all the guests, including Masquerade. Joe was not yet aware of this unwelcome visitor's presence so Masquerade took it to his advantage.

"Yo, Joe! Great to see you again!" he greeted his 'friend' with an evil grin.

"What in the world are _you_ doing here, _Masquerade_!" Joe said in discomfort.

"I came here to, you know, spread some 'Christmas Spirit'" Masquerade said using advantage of the word Hydranoid had taught him.

"Spread Christmas spirit, my—"

"Stop it!" Alice snapped, "How many times do I need to say it! Masquerade is here as a guest and _I_ invited him!"

"A-Alice?" Joe said surprised, Alice has never really yelled at him like that.

Alice looked down and slightly lowered her head, "Why must we fight so near the holiday of peace?" she said sadly.

"Alice…I'm sorry." Joe apologized.

"Hey, I get an apology too, right?" Masquerade pointed to his face displaying a small grin.

"No way in—"

"Joe, apologize to Masquerade!" Alice said seriously.

"But…" Joe sighed, "Fine, I'm sorry…Masquerade." Masquerade's once small grin broadened greatly.

"Apology accepted." He said in an overly prideful voice. Joe was angry, and he could tell. _Man, if I didn't know better I'd think Alice was their leader, she has them wrapped around her finger!_ "Alice, where's the bathroom?"

"Oh, it's through that hallway on the left, keep going until you see the marked door." Alice said unsuspicious.

"Great, thank you." Masquerade said without wasting a minute. _If they don't start looking for me, which might happen since they don't give a care about me, then I may be able to do this without getting caught. Yet getting caught wouldn't be the worse thing in the world as long as I've gathered all the data by then._ Masquerade thought as he briskly walked down the hallway and past the door that marked the bathroom. He turned right and went down a flight of stairs while taking out a medium seized cube from his pocket. _Darn, this thing is bigger than I expected, and square shaped may not have been the best design but if this flash-drive holds as much memory as Hal-G said then it's created from a stroke of genius. Hal-G…I don't really trust you but DON'T FAIL ME NOW!_

* * *

"At least they get a Christmas tree at all!" Hydranoid said in jealousy. All the other bakugan stared at him. Gorem spoke up.

"You mean you don't have a Christmas tree?"

"Yeah, all we have is a fern with some lights thrown on it." Hydranoid said as Drago rolled further away from him. Preyas decided to lighten the mood by singing.

"Oh Christmas fern, oh Christmas fern! Thy leaves are so unchanging!"

"That's not funny." Tigrerra said moodily.

"Awww, is the widdle kitty angry?" Preyas teased. Tigrerra sighed. Hydranoid looked down sadly.

"Masquerade won't let me do anything else…I think he hates Christmas."

"Well, that's too bad." Gorem said in sympathy. Preyas jumped in front of Hydranoid.

"You need to go and tell the man how it is. You need to go and tell him to give you some respect!"

"P-Preyas?" Hydranoid said in shock.

"We may be bakugan and we may call them things like 'master' or 'my lady' or 'mistress' but it's not like that! It's a partnership!" Preyas said with compassion.

"I agree completely, it is a relationship in which the bakugan and human must see eye to eye and stand on the same ground, as equals." Drago joined in.

"Wow, that was kinda deep, especially for _you_, Preyas." Tigrerra praised.

"You know what, guys? I'm going to Masquerade right now and I'm going to demand equality!" Hydranoid said with a newly revealed passion.

"Good luck, Hydranoid!" Tigrerra called out at Hydranoid who has rolled off the couch and started rolling toward the main party room, full of purpose.

"Thanks everyone!" Hydranoid said as he continued into the main room.

* * *

"This is great!" Masquerade said as he watched the giant computer monitor. "If nothing wrong happens I'll have all of Marucho's data on my flash-drive in no time!" On the computer monitor there were file names flying from the bottom of the screen and disappearing under the progress meter, which was now at 67%.

* * *

"Hey, Joe!" Hydranoid said.

"Oh, hey Hydranoid." Joe said kind of distracted.

"Have you seen Masquerade?"

"Actually, I haven't seen him in a while." Joe said worriedly.

"Oh, alright then." Hydranoid said sadly while rolling back into the TV room where the other bakugan awaited him. Joe looked at Shun who had overheard their conversation. Shun noticed the worried look on Joe's face.

"Alice." Shun called.

"Is there anything I can help you with, Shun?" Alice asked after she had weaved herself through the crowd toward Shun and Joe.

"Do you know where Masquerade went?"

"He asked where the bathrooms were and I directed him through that hallway." Alice said as she pointed toward the hallway in which Masquerade had exited. Shun nodded toward Joe and they left the room in unison. "Wait! Joe! Shun! Where are you guys going?" Alice called out in curiosity as the other two ran down the hallway searching for Masquerade.

* * *

"What a perfect excuse to fool Alice." Joe said in annoyance.

"I know what you mean but it's not like he's above that. Going to the _bathroom_, oh please! You don't need to go to the bathroom if you don't have any guts in the first place!" Shun said angrily.

"What confuses me is that Hydranoid doesn't know anything about what Masquerade is doing."

"It _could_ be an act."

"Yeah, but that's not Hydranoid's style. He's very blunt and kind of simple minded, plus even if he _did_ know he wouldn't want to alert us if Masquerade's doing anything."

"Then it could be a trap."

"Would you stop over thinking this?"

"Would you stop _under_ thinking this?"

"This is no good, now we're just fighting with each other. Though it _does_ confuse me why Hydranoid isn't aware of Masquerade's location. Isn't he supposed to always be with him?"

"Yeah, that does seem weird."

"Well, I guess bakugan have lives too, you know?"

"Well, the only thing we can safely assume is that he's up to no good!"

"Right!" Joe said in agreement. Just then they saw a white flash travel across where the hallway split in two.

"There he is!" Shun whispered to Joe. Joe nodded. The next thing Masquerade knew was that a black and purple flash had knocked him off his feet and that a nosy brunet had him in a headlock.

"What is the meaning of this?" Masquerade demanded as Shun's eyes scanned him over.

"What's that bulging in your pocket?" Shun asked stoical. Joe used his free hand to reach into Masquerade's pocket and pulled out a bulky cube.

"It's just a cube with a button on it." Joe said somewhat disappointedly.

"And what happens when we press the button, Masquerade?" Shun said steadily.

"It's none of your business! Give it back!" Masquerade growled. Shun grinned as he had found a tender spot.

"I don't think you're in any position to demand things from _us_, Masquerade." Shun said as his smile widened. "Now, what is this?"

"It's…a game for Hydranoid." Masquerade lied.

"What? But it's just a cube with a single button." Joe pointed out. _Once they press the button,_ Masquerade thought, _they'll know what it is because the button reveals the UBS port on the cube, I have to discourage them from pressing it without sounding too obvious._

"Hydranoid won't be happy that someone else was playing with his game." Masquerade said stealthily but he decided to give up that series of lies as it seemed it had no effect on Shun.

"Really?" Shun prodded.

"Alright, fine, it's a bomb that actives when you press the button." Masquerade said convincingly, pretending to be defeated. _Alright, maybe that wasn't the _best_ choice but at least I was able to lie about it, plus, there's no way they're going to press the button now._

"What do we do now, Shun? It's a bomb!" Joe said excitedly.

"I say we should take out the trash." Shun said confidently.

"Which one, the bomb or the villain?" Joe asked.

"I'll ask Marucho to disarm the bomb while you can do with Masquerade as you see fit." Shun decided.

"You know, Alice will be very disappointed when she finds out that you two held the guest she _personally_ invited against his will and stole one of his things from his pocket." Masquerade said with effect. Shun flinched at the thought of Alice being disappointed.

"Alright, that's enough Masquerade! I'm about to put you in your place!" Joe said with dignity.

"Wait, stop." Shun commanded.

Masquerade snickered, "What? Are you going to be a good boy for little Alice?"

"I still don't know what this thing is for sure but if Alice can come to trust you…so can I." Shun hesitated, _What if it really _is _a bomb? Though I think he was kidding about that, Masquerade has a sick sense of humor. _The next thing Shun saw was Masquerade swiping the cube out of his hand with a nasty grin on his face.

"Why, thank you very much." Masquerade said as Shun looked toward Joe who was laying passed out on the floor.

"I think you should go now." Shun glared at Masquerade.

"Happily." Masquerade said as he took out his dimensional transporter, purposely forgetting Hydranoid.

* * *

"Hey Shun!" Hydranoid rolled toward the entering ninja who was shouldering Joe, who was half-awake. "You guys were looking for Masquerade, right?"

"Oh, Hydranoid…well, ummm, he kinda left already, I'm sorry, he must have forgotten you."

"Masquerade isn't the kind of person who just forgets things, he's smarter than that." Hydranoid said sadly. Shun felt a twinge of pity for the small darkus bakugan.

"Don't worry Hydranoind, you can stay at the party with us, right, Joe?"

Joe looked at Shun dizzily, "Huh?"

"Ummm, never mind…" Shun said unsure.

"Well, I guess now I can just stay with the other bakugan!" Hydranoid said trying to disguise his happiness as he rolled back to the TV room.

* * *

"So, how did it go?" Preyas asked.

"How did _what_ go?" Hydranoid asked blankly.

"You know, with demanding Masquerade respect."

"Oh, _that_." Hydranoid remembered gloomily.

"So, you failed, right?" Preyas asked trying to predict the outcome.

"He left the party without even telling me!"

"Awww, that's ok Hydranoid, Masquerade was a party pooper anyways." Tigrerra comforted Hydranoid. Preyas sighed.

"Well…I'm bored, who wants to help me with a…little project?" Preyas offered.

"I will." Drago said without hesitating. He just wanted to leave the awkwardness of being with Hydranoid.

"What _kind_ of project?" Wyvern said with suspicion.

"Just, comon'!" Preyas tried to convince her.

* * *

A little later Gorem decided to leave Hydranoid and Tigrerra alone while he looked for Julie. She wasn't in the main party room so he asked Alice where she went. Apparently she left through the west hall with Billy, somewhere. Gorem rolled down the long, empty hallway as he searched for his mistress. He saw a closed door to a storage closet but there was light seeping through the bottom crack. The crack was high enough for Gorem to roll under it so he did so to investigate. The next thing Gorem saw would probably scar him for life. He saw Julie and Billy in each other's arms, kissing passionately.

"Mistress Julie!" Gorem said in shock.

Julie broke her kiss with Billy, "Gorem?"

"Julie, what are you doing!"

"Ummm, I'm making out with Billy?"

"That was a rhetorical question! I mean…how could you do this to me?" Gorem scolded, sounding heartbroken. "How could you run off kissing guys in a closet while an innocent Christmas party is being hosted by your best friends? And aren't you two a little too young to be doing _that_."

"Ummm, well, you see, me and Billy were talking and then we noticed we were standing under mistletoe and well…" Julie tried to explain.

"But you decided to run off and take it to the next step! What were you guys going to do after this, strip each other of your—"

"Stop it, Gorem!" Billy lashed out, cheeks burning red. "Me and Julie have known each other for years, and now we've been dating for three months, can't you give us some room, already?"

"If I see you touching her like that ever again, I swear I'll…"

"You'll do what?" Billy asked in a flat voice.

"Uh…"

"Just give it up Gorem." Julie said in annoyance.

* * *

"Alice, I need to talk to you." Shun motioned to Alice to come toward him. Alice followed him. "Masquerade was carrying a suspicious object that he claimed was a bomb."

"What?" Alice blinked in surprise.

"I highly doubt it was but he was definitely up to no good."

"Shun, stop being paranoid." Alice accused as Shun furrowed his brow.

"I'm not being paranoid."

"I invite _one_ guest and you guys go and try to accuse him of holding a bomb, Masquerade's a _brawler_ not a _terrorist_." Alice said while crossing her arms.

"He said it himself that it was a bomb."

"But you said it yourself, it probably wasn't."

"He deceived you, he didn't go to the bathroom at all, he went somewhere to do something he wasn't supposed to do."

"He didn't say he was going to the bathroom, he just asked where they were."

"It's the same thing."

"No, it's not."

"If he asks where they are then it's implied that he's going there."

"Yeah but you just can't _assume_ things about other people, like how you assumed he was up to no good." Alice said with a hint of venom. Shun was surprised. Joe, fully recovered now, walked up to the arguing pair.

"Wow Alice, for someone who doesn't like to fight, you sure are biting Shun's head off." Joe said jokingly.

"Joe, is the reason you two bolted was because you guys thought Masquerade was up to no good?" Alice questioned.

"Well…yeah, I doubt Masquerade's done a nice thing in his life, to be honest." Joe said.

"I see…" Alice said sadly but in a thoughtful tone. _Though Joe wasn't here yet to see it Masquerade _did_ give me a present_. She thought as she looked over at the stuffed tiger that she had placed on the table. She wanted to defend Masquerade but deep down she felt that he had used her, and she let him do it. And now she's yelling at one of her best friends because he was trying to be reasonable. _What do I do?_ Alice thought desperately, _If deep down I knew he was going to use me, then why did I do it anyways?_ Alice thought intensely as she squeezed the bottom of her shirt in frustration. _I wonder if this is how Masquerade feels about Naga, is there a quality that humans have, a quality in some people, that makes them not mind being mutilated? _She thought deeply.

"ALICE!" Shun yelled at Alice after he had called her name for the sixth time.

Alice blinked a few times and slowly turned her head toward Shun, "I'm sorry, Shun! It's just that…I was deep in thought."

"It's alright, maybe you should take a break." Shun suggested as Alice walked out the party room. _She was looking at the tiger, why would she be thinking so hard about Masquerade? Well, he _is_ an interesting character, I'll give him that, and I _am_ curious to what that cube thingy was_. Shun thought now deep in his own thoughts. He turned to Joe and said, "I think I'll turn in for tonight."

"What? Why? You shouldn't let Masquerade rain on your parade!" Joe said cheerfully.

"I'm just…tired." Shun said trying to make up an excuse.

"Alright, fine, but I'm telling you, you're going to miss out on the party!" Joe said as Shun swiftly left the Mansion.

* * *

"Project COMPLETE!" Preyas yelled triumphantly. "Every open doorway and archway has a strand of mistletoe hanging from the top!"

Wyvern sighed dreamily, "Isn't it great, Dragoroonie?"

"W-wyvern, I told you not to call me that in front of anyone else! And what exactly is great?"

"You mean you don't know, Dragoroonie?" Wyvern teased, "Why, it's the power of love!" Preyas was close to laughing at this point.

"Man, I do _not_ get girls, I'm glad I'm single!" Preyas said matter-of-factly.

"Haven't you two noticed anything different with Hydranoid?" Wyvern asked.

"Well…yeah. He's, kinda less…evil…" Drago said blankly, as if he couldn't believe those words came out of his mouth. Preyas joined in.

"And he's acting really close to Tigrerra." Preyas said in a blank tone similar to Drago's.

"Then isn't it _obvious_, guys? Hydranoid and Tigrerra are _dating_."

"WHAT?" Drago and Preyas said in unison.

"Really, you guys are _so_ clueless."

* * *

After the party Alice swept the ground traveling from room to room.

"Alice, you don't need to clean up, I have hired staff to clean up." Marucho pointed out to Alice.

"If I don't clean up after my own party then I'm being a nuisance." Alice said while wiping the imaginary sweat from her forehead.

"Alright, if you want to." Marucho said while siting back down on the sofa and stared at the TV which was now showing Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer.

"Marucho? Do you know why Shun left all of a sudden?" Alice asked in curiosity.

"I dunno. Maybe he kind of feels like Rudolf."

"The reindeer?"

"Who else?"

"It's just that…why are you comparing Shun with a reindeer?"

"It's not just that, I'm comparing their situations, I think Shun felt left out, a loner."

"But, why? I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"

"Well, maybe not, but I think it was mostly Masquerade's fault…which is kind of indirectly your fault since you're the one who invited him."

"Hmmm…" Alice mumbled while leaning against the side of the archway that connected the party and TV room.

"Well, I'm hitting the hay, you should probably go home soon."

"Alright, thanks Marucho for letting me barrow you house for the party!"

Marucho yawned, "It's alright Alice…good night…" Alice was expecting Marucho to go up to his room but, to Alice's surprise, he fell asleep on the sofa.

Alice sighed, "Good night, Marucho."

"Ah, so the little bugger's asleep, but at this time? I didn't know he had such an early bedtime." An unexpected voice snickered in the darkness. Alice whipped around to see a blonde leaning on the other side of the archway.

"M-masquerade!" Alice said in surprise. Masquerade grinned. Alice was confused, "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pick up a rather annoying bakugan, hope he was good." Masquerade said the last part jokingly.

"Actually, he was the best behaved of all the bakugan." Alice said, she saw Masquerade flinch at this reply. "Hey, Masquerade."

"Yeah?"

"You didn't _really_ bring a bomb to the party, did you?"

"Well, I didn't really need to bring a bomb to have my idea of fun."

"Is that so?" Alice asked teasingly. Masquerade was surprised by this.

"Alright, Alice, what's up?"

"The ceiling." Alice answered with a grin.

"Ha-ha, very funny, but really, why'd you invite me, anyways?"

"It's just that…Christmas is such a wonderful time, it's the time when people try their best to get along," Alice giggled, "even the Brawlers! I want to spend Chirstmas with everyone I know, whether they get along together or not, it's just that, Christmas is the time of year when even world peace seems closer to reality."

"Is that what you desire, Alice? World peace?"

"…yes." Alice said with some uncertainty.

"Do you believe this is possible?"

"Yes!" Alice said with a hidden tone of determination. Masquerade couldn't take it anymore, he laughed right in Alice's face. Alice's face turned red at someone mocking her dreams. She was about to snap at him but then she remembered something she wanted to ask Masquerade. "…Masquerade…"

"What is it this time?" Masquerade said somewhat crossly.

"Do-do humans…do humans have a quality…a trait, that makes them want to be controlled by someone?" Alice asked in a semi-quivering voice.

"Yes." Masquerade said without hesitation, as if it was the only truth he knew, yet he was still surprised to see this side of Alice. "But not all people. There are some who have the desire to control, whether they have the ability to lead or not, and there are others who want to be controlled, and do you know why, why these people want to be controlled?"

"…W-why?"

"It's because they are cowards, they do not want to face the truth so they hide behind a leader, a leader they put all their trust in. They are scared of their own world, their own fates! They hide behind those who _aren't_ scared to face the world, to face the truth!" Masquerade said slowly gaining in volume through his speech.

"Then which one are you?"

"Why, I am the one who controls people."

"No you're not."

"What?"

"You let Naga walk all over you."

"I thought this talk was currently about human nature, not powerful bakugan."

"Why…why do you do it, Masquerade?"

"Why do I need to tell _you_?"

"Because…because…well…"

"Because of _what_?"

"Masquerade, you're making a mistake by following Naga." Alice said clearly.

"And maybe I am."

"How can you call yourself the controller if Naga's controlling _you_?"

"A hundred-and-twenty-three."

"What?"

"That's the current number of my henchman."

"It's doesn't matter how many _minions_ you have, you still hide behind Naga, your leader, because you will not accept the truth about him!"

"And what makes you think that?" Masquerade said angrily.

"You said it yourself! People hide behind their leaders because they are too scared to face the truth!"

"Why you…" Masquerade said but stopped himself, _I'll just show her who is the easier one to control_.

"W-why do people fight? Even me?" Alice said with tears in her eyes.

Masquerade hesitated, _She's braking down, now's my chance!_ "People fight because people are individuals."

"What do you mean?"

"People fight because they have different ideas, beliefs, morals, wants, needs, desires, points of view, hatred and love for different things."

"So you think being an individual is bad?"

"Well, I didn't say _that_ but what I _do_ want to say is that I don't want to fight with you anymore." Masquerade said as he got stepped closer. _I'll just pretend to be interested in her, if I play my cards right I might get my 124__th__ minion…hehe_.

"You don't?" Alice asked surprised.

"Of course, all anyone ever received from fighting is an earful from the other person."

"I guess…" Alice trailed off as Masquerade took another step closer. _I've underestimated Alice before, but not anymore. I did not see what value she could be of me, in the beginning, but not only does see things clearly see is also the moral support of the Brawlers. If she comes to me, the other Brawlers may follow. YES! But I can't get too excited, that nosy ninja is on my tail, I can't capture Alice physically so I'll do the next best thing…I'll capture her heart_. Masquerade grinned as these evil thoughts flooded his head.

"Ummm, Masquerade. Why are you looking at me like that?" Alice said defensively.

"You mean you didn't notice it? The mistletoe?" Masquerade said pointing up to a strand of green leaves and white berries.

"I—" Alice said with cheeks bright red, cutting herself off as Masquerade closed the gap between them. "Ummm, you know, I'd kiss you on the cheek to get it over with but you're always covering your cheeks with your mask." Alice said slyly.

"Stop it with the mask already, you're not getting away with a peck on the cheek." Masquerade said as he leaned his arm against the wall Alice had her back on and he closed the distance between their faces and lips. After a while Masquerade pulled back with a wild grin on his face. "Glad we could talk." He lied as he pulled out his dimensional transporter and vanished before Alice could reply. Alice stood there in silence, cheeks burning and lips still tingling.

Her eyes widened as she realized something important, her lips barely moved as she whispered the dreaded truth, "…he forgot Hydranoid…"

* * *

Shun opened the door loudly but did not enter his room.

"So, ummm, how was the party?" Skyress asked sensing that her master was not doing well.

"He showed up…he actually showed up…" Shun said as if he was still in shock.

"Who showed up, Shun?" Skyress questioned worried about Shun.

"Masquerade." Shun mumbled, the sound coming out barely audible.

"Really, child, you shouldn't mumble when someone asks a question."

"It was Masquerade." Shun said looking up at Skyress who laid perched on his night-stand.

"Oh yeah, you mentioned that Alice invited him."

"He showed up and ruined everything."

"What exactly did he do?"

"He showed up, what else?"

"Shun, it's rude to reject someone's company."

Shun walked into the room half-way to his bed, "Yeah, but I just wish he wasn't there." Shun said while holding up his present to Alice, a red and white one with an open-able lid.

"Weren't you supposed to give that to Alice?"

"He ended up giving a her present, himself."

"But you could still have given her your present anyways, right?"

"That's not really the point, it made me like second best."

"But it's not _about_ being second best."

"Darn it, Skyress, you don't get it!" Shun snapped as he threw the present to the wall on plopped down on his bed.

"…I'm sorry Shun…" Skyress said as she watched the present's lid fall of revealing a necklace. The heart shaped locket made a metal clink noise as it hit the ground and opened showing a picture of Alice and Shun together.

**

* * *

**

**A/N:**

Kd: Yay! My biggest chapter, yet!

Jet: How many words was that? O.O

Kd: Not including the A/N it was 5,230 words long =D

Masky: Why did you make me do that? And why did you use my fangirl name for my dialog name?

Hydranoid: And why haven't we seen Santa, yet?

Jet: Santa doesn't come until December 25th.

Hydranoid: WHY MUST HE MAKE THE WORLD WAIT THAT LONG?

Kd: Hydranoid…HYDRANOID, calm down!

Hydranoid: Well, it seems like Christmas flys by so fast, anyways.

Masquerade: Christmas is being too slow for me.

Jet: *looks between kd and Masquerade* Can I hug him, now?

Masquerade: What?

Kd: Not until after the A/N

Jet: That's not fair!

Kd: Plus you'll have to fight with Alice for him now.

Jet: He's not with Alice _yet_.

Kd: Not _yet_ ;D

Jet: I just want to hug him, that's all.

Kd: Sorry, not in my A/N.

Jet: Foey…


	5. December 4th Lingering Meaning

**A/N:**

kd: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait! I also apologize for this being such a short chapter…and not with enough humor than I would have liked…

Hydranoid: What are you apologizing for? Just get to the part I'm in!

kd: Ummm, well, the thing is, Hydrie…you're only in one scene ^.^;;

Hydranoid: …did you just call me 'Hydrie'? Is that my new, wait a minute, I'M ONLY IN ONE SCENE!

kd: Sorry, sorry! I kinda just made this to rush things along…it might even be my shortest chapter yet…

Hydranoid: But WHY? Are you trying to abuse us?

kd: Not really, I'm just trying to get more reviews…-.-;;

Hydranoid: Oh comon'!

kd: Anyways, hope you guys can enjoy this chapter!

Hydranoid: WAAAAAIIIIITTTTT!

kd: What?

Hydranoid: You forgot the disclaimer!

kd: Oh…this again -.-…just tell Masky to do it.

Hydranoid: But I haven't seen him since the late A/N

kd: Then who's going to—

Jet: *pops out of nowhere* kd does NOT own ANY part of bakugan!

kd: Alright, so there you go~

* * *

December 4th in Alice's bedroom

"A…beach house?" Alice asked uncertainly while holding a cute, small, pink, flip phone against her right cheek and shoulder. She in her bedroom, laying on her bed belly-down as she slowly kicked her legs into the air in a rhythmic motion. Her arms folded near her chest as she used her elbows to support the upper half of her body.

"Yes, everyone else is going, it'll be like having summer in the middle of winter." Shun tried to reassure Alice.

"I don't know, I kinda like winter…" Alice said in an almost dreamy voice as she imagined slowly drifting snowflakes as there were child sledding and making snowmen and snow-angles then going home after to drink delicious, warm, hot coco.

"We'll only be there for a week." Shun said with a tired edge to his voice. Alice still wasn't sure. Why would she want to have summer during the winter when the month of her favorite holiday was so short? She could always go down there during the actual summer, she could also go down there most of the year, since it was owned by Marucho, but winter only came around once a year. Then again, now that they were getting older, school was getting harder and they were losing more and more free time. If she passed up the opportunity to be with the other brawlers, she might regret it.

"Alright, I'll go." Alice said a bit wishy-washy.

"Alright!" Shun said in genuine happiness. Alice couldn't help but smile to hear Shun's excitement and thinking about the fun time she'll have with everyone else. She could always celebrate Christmas, but she had a feeling that her time with the Brawlers may be limited…

* * *

"Ugh, I'm so bored." Masquerade complained as he stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom.

"Well, what do you suppose we do, Master?" Hydranoid asked optimistically.

"Hmmm…let's put more bakugan in the doom dimension." Masquerade offered, though he made it sound like more of a command than a request. But Hydranoid knew he was just pondering this option as he was still lying on his bed, unsure of what to do.

"…or we could go sledding."

"Or send the Brawler's bakugan to the doom dimension."

"Or make snowmen…"

"Or plot complex mastermind plans on how to destroy the Brawlers."

"Or we could watch Christmas specials."

"Or we could work on world domination."

"Or we could do something a little more Christmasy—"

"Or we could just do something FREANKIN' EVIL ALREADY!" Masquerade blurted out, now sitting on the edge of his bed to glare at Hydranoid who was sitting on his dresser.

Hydranoid sighed, "I guess I should just tell you already…"

"Tell me what?" Masquerade asked irritated.

"Ummm…well…Naga gave us vacation time for the holidays…"

"WHAT?" Masquerade threw his hands up in disbelief.

"Well, you see, Naga's noticed your dropping performance and thinks that forcing vacation time on you would help you to relax for a while…you have the entire month off…"

"Why in the world did you not tell me this before?"

"Because I knew you'd act all stressed out…like you are now."

"I'm not acting stressed out." Masquerade snapped.

Hydranoid coughed and muttered, "Denial," and then coughed again.

Masquerade sighed, "So what do we do now?" Masquerade asked as he felt déjà vu, _Weren't we just thinking of things to do?_

"I dunno, boss, where do you wanna go?" Hydranoid asked, unable to hide the broadness from his voice.

Masquerade looked to his left to see his dresser and saw the sun glasses that lay on the top. "I think I have a fun idea, Hydranoid…"

* * *

Meanwhile in Runo and Alice's room...

"So tell me Tigrerra…" Wyvern inched toward Tigrerra, "Aren't you going to miss Hydranoid when you go to Marucho's beach house with Runo?"

"W-what are you talking about?" Tigrerra stuttered, "Why in the world would I miss Hydranoid, the guardian bakugan of the brawlers' nemesis, of all people?"

"Huh, I thought so," Wyvern concluded.

"See, there's nothing between me and Hydranoid."

"I _knew_ there was something between you and Hydranoid."

"Wait…_what_!"

"So tell me. When did you guys first start seeing each other? Do you have pet names for each other…like…Hydrie and Tigs? Are you guys going to be mates? What's his favorite color? Do you believe that he's your soul mate? How far, exactly, are you two into your relationship. Does either Runo or Masquerade know?" Wyvern shot questions at poor Tigrerra like rapid fire.

"Ummm, well, actually…wait, why in the world would you come to such conclusions after I just said that me and Hydranoid weren't seeing each other…"

"But you guys _are_, aren't you?"

"Yes…and it's so _exciting_!" Tigrerra let out a girl squeal along with Tigrerra, she starts spilling _everything_, unable to hold it in. "We first started seeing each other 3 months ago, when Runo and Marucho visited Masquerade mansion and I met Hydranoid, face to face. Ummm…mates…I'm not sure about that yet, It'd be great if out relationship ever reaches that point, but I don't know yet. He says his favorite color is white, but I think he says that to flatter me, so I don't think he really has a preference. Neither Masquerade or Runo…or anyone else on the face of this planet knows about me and him, yet. I'm not sure if he's my soul mate, but we go nice together, I think."

"Wow…so none of the others know…"

"Time to say goodbye, Wyvern!" Joe called from across the room. Joe also turned to Runo, who was still packing for the trip, and said his farewells. "Thanks for the party and letting me stay for the night while I waited for my flight back home."

"No problem." said Runo.

"Please come again!" Alice said, also exchanging goodbyes with Joe.

_I couldn't imagine their reactions if I told them…_ Tigrerra thought as she watched Runo's and Alice's smileing faces as they waved goodbye to Joe.

* * *

December 5th, in Flordia somewhere...

It was a perfect day for the beach. The sun was shining, making the ocean glean and sparkle as the waves beat against the rocks, spraying water droplets high into the air where it might catch the light to quickly cast a small rainbow. Alice smiled at the scenery around her. She was wearing a green one-piece, with lime green sides. Marucho, who was in light blue trunks, was happily slashing in the water with Runo, wearing a yellow bikini with orange flowers. Alice sat near the wet mark in the sand that showed how high the waves flowed.

Alice sat down and sighed in contentment. She stared off into the horizon as her head swarmed with deep inner thoughts. She thought about how she was glad she came here, though she missed the snow. She thought about how the other brawlers were getting along and how they were improving on their brawling. When she thought about brawling, though, an image of Masquerade abruptly appeared in her mind's eye. _I wonder what he's doing…_ Alice thought dreamily.

In her mind's eye she replayed the memory of Masquerade kissing her under the mistletoe. She remembered his face, covered by that haunting mask, coming closer to hers. She thought of the tingling sensation throughout her body as their lips touched. It was a very light kiss, their lips barely brushed against each other, but that just left her wanting more. She never thought kisses could feel so good. She blushed as she realized that it was her first kiss. She imagined Masquerade pulling away from the kiss, while still embracing her by holding her arms, and gently calling her name. '_Alice'_ he murmured quietly. Alice turned to Masquerade and waited for what he was going to say next but they both stayed silent in her mind's eye.

"Alice." Masquerade said a bit more firmly, as if worried that he did not have her full attention. Alice nodded to him to continue…but he didn't, Alice started to worry. Why was fantasy Masquerade acting this way? "Alice!" Shun almost yelled. Alice flinched as she finally noticed the handsome ninja sitting next to her. His long black hair looked glossy in the intense sunlight, which seemed out of place among the white sand and the more colorful brawlers. He wore dark purple trunks and a shark tooth necklace, a nice contrast to his darker skin, hung next to his bare chest.

"Oh, Shun!" Alice said, surprised. "I'm sorry I was just thinking about something."

"What were you thinking about?" Shun asked in true curiosity.

Alice's blush deepened, "Oh, n-nothing in particular!" Alice didn't want to tell any of the Brawlers about what happened between her and Masquerade, even if it _was_ Shun. They all hated Masquerade, which was a problem because she found that now she really likes Masquerade. Not only does she like him but she's been having uncontrollable fantasies about him, and she definitely couldn't tell the brawlers about _that_, even the girl brawlers would be freaked out.

"Alice…" Shun said with concern in his voice. He placed his hands on her reddened cheeks. "Are you burning, already? You forgot to put on sun lotion, didn't you?"

"Ah, well, I guess you caught me there." Alice hastily stood up. "I'll go put on some right now!" She laughed nervously as she turned around and ran back to the house.

"…all I did was ask her about sun lotion…" Shun murmured in amazement about Alice's edginess.

_I need to tell someone, the secrecy is killing me!_ Alice thought franticly as she searched around the large vacation house. She ran around the place a few times only to remember that everyone was outside. Alice went up to her room and laid on the bed in distress. Belly-down, limbs spread out so they partly fell off the bed and face being suffocated by the pillow. This was Alice's 'overwhelmed' pose. All it took was one kiss and she was falling apart, _Am I really that weak?_ Alice thought to herself. _Sure it was my first kiss and all but do I really need to be so obsessed about it? The real problem isn't necessarily about the kiss but about how much the brawlers hate Masquerade. He really isn't that bad of a guy…right? I wonder why he serves Naga, there must be some reason…I wish he was here so I could ask him, or at least be able to see him._

"Hey Alice, what's wrong?" Runo asked walking into the room to discover Alice sprawled out on her bed.

"Nothing." Alice muttered into her pillow.

"Oh, come on." Runo said while walking to sit on the edge of the bed to comfort Alice.

Alice looked up from her pillow, "I told you, it's nothing." Alice tried to say this convincingly but the emotion must have been plain on her face.

Runo sighed, "If you don't tell just yet, that's fine but what are you doing in here, Shun's waiting for you!"

"He is?"

"Yes!" Runo flailed her hands in frustration. _Alice can be really clueless when it comes to guys sometimes…at least I can always understand Dan…well, it's not that hard to misunderstand him, either…so I'm not saying I'm a mind reader…I just know Dan well…well, kinda…we're good friend…acquaintances…co-workers?_ While Runo was having such internal conflict Alice slid off the bed in one fluid motion and walked out of the room to meet up with Shun.

* * *

Mean while down on the beach...

"AHHHHH! HELP! HEEELLPP MEEEE!" Preyas yelled as the waves started sweeping him away.

"Preyas?" Dan asked in surprise after spotting the drifting blue bakugan.

"Don't just stand there, help me for Pete's sake!"

"Alright," Dan said as he waded into the very shallow water to pick up the squirming bakugan, "I thought you were an aquos bakugan, how could you drown? And who's Pete?"

"Wow, you really are stupid…"

"Hey!" Dan yelled, offended of Preyas's blunt criticism.

Preyas sighed, "You know, not all aquos bakugan can swim."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Then what's the point of being an aquos bakugan if you can't even swim?"

"…WHY DOES EVERYONE POINT THAT OUT?" Preyas said in despair.

"Ummm…I thought you could change attributes, too."

"Oh yeah…"

"…"

"…" Preyas reflected Dan's silence.

"So who's Pete, and why is everyone worried for his sake?" If bakugan could face palm in ball form, Preyas would have defiantly have done it.

* * *

That Afternoon

"Alright Alice, what's up?" Shun said, strait to the point. It was been multiple times that he caught Alice with that worried stare. Something was definitely on her mind but no one could figure out what. She would just stare out into space at the most inconvenient times, like now, while she and Shun were playing volleyball together and she let the ball pass her without making any effort.

"Oh, uh, nothing's…'up'" Alice tried to make the lie more convincing with a smile, but the smile must not have reached her eyes because Shun had a worried look on his face.

"Alright, but could you at least get the ball? They're over the rocks over there." Shun pointed toward the 'mini mountain range' of rocks that separated this summer house into the next private property.

"Shun, that would be trespassing, the rocks separate the properties!"

Shun sighed, "Alice, just go. It's not like anyone else will be here, it's early December."

"Yeah, you're right, I bet nobody's home over there, anyways." Alice said before walking off. The setting sun made the rock glow orange, giving a somewhat otherworldly impression, a barrier that she had to cross, more mentally than physically. Alice climbed the rocks but froze in shock when she saw what was on the other side. Alice slowly walked up to the boy in the reclining beach chair on the adjacent property. "M…Masquerade?"


	6. December 5th The Truth is out!

**A/N:**

kd: Hi again, guys! Sorry for the wait but, _here it is! And it's my second biggest chapter yet!_

Masquerade: Alright, Alright, calm down. That's enough excitement for one A/N, don't you think?

Hydranoid: What was the _biggest_ chapter, kd?

kd: It was the Christmas party one.

Hydranoid: Oh yeah…

Masquerade: *sighs* Ahhhhh, good times…good times…

Hydranoid: Oh, guess what! My new favorite hobby is now watching holiday speicals!

kd: O.O…That was random…

Masquerade: My favorite hobby is manipulating the brawlers.

kd: That's not creepy at all -.-;;…

Hydranoid: What's your favorite hobby, kd?

kd: Ahhh, (_darn, now I don't have any time to think about it. Oh well, I'll say something about them_) well, that would be writing about you two ^.^;;

Hydranoid: …

kd: …

Masquerade: Wow, she really _doesn't_ have a life…

kd: Hey! T/T

That same afternoon…

* * *

"M-masquerade?" Alice asked in shock. The boy sat up in his beach chair.

"Alice? What are you doing here?" Masquerade asked in irritation.

"I'm here on vacation." Alice couldn't believe her eyes. Right in front of her was the real Masquerade…in swim trunks nonetheless. "Ummm, you know…you're beach house is right next to Marucho's…"

Masquerade sighed and muttered, "I knew something was up when Naga offered a beach house, he was using this to spy on the brawlers…"

"What was that?" Alice asked as she only caught 'Naga' and 'beach house'.

"Never mind." Masquerade said as he got up from the beach chair. Alice blushed as Masquerade took a step closer, crossing his arms. Luckily the orange sunset disallowed Masquerade from seeing the color in her cheeks. "Anyways, I've got something to do, and maybe you should, too, this is really your property…" Masquerade started to walk back toward his house after excusing himself but Alice called back at him.

"Wait! I need to ask you something!" Alice ran after him.

Masquerade sighed then turned around, "What?"

"Ummm," Alice twirled a strand of her long red hair between two fingers, "Can you take off your mask for me?"

"What!" Masquerade said in surprise.

"Please?" Alice begged, clenching her two hands together.

Masquerade gave her a mischievous grin, "Sure," He said as grabbed the lens of his mask and whipped it off.

Alice's mouth dropped wide open, "…you're wearing the sunglasses I gave you…"

"Yup."

"Under your mask…"

"…are you going to repeat everything you see? Yes, I get it I'm wearing your sunglasses, aren't you thankful I'm using your gift?"

"Not at the moment," Alice muttered as she crossed her arms and pouted childishly in disappointment.

Masquerade raised one of his eyebrows, she could now see them, in a look of warning. Alice guessed that maybe asking to see his face was asking too much and she could already see his cheeks and eyebrows, she should at least be happy for that much. So Alice took the chance to memorize as much of his face as she could. She noticed his more mature and sharper features, and she could already tell that he was more handsome than any of the other male brawlers. His slender eyebrows, a blonde matching his hair, where leveled in a look of impatience. "What are you staring at?" Masquerade brought Alice's train of thought. "Anyways, I'm going inside, the sun's already set and it's starting to get cold, you should go do what you came here for and be on your way." And with that lengthy good bye, Masquerade walked back into his beach house.

Alice just watched him go then started looking for the ball she was supposed to retrieve in the first place. When Alice climbed back over the rocks back to Marucho's beach she saw that no one was outside anymore. _Great, just great, they didn't even wait for me!_ Alice thought disappointedly as she walked back toward the house. When she walked through the back door and poked her head through the door to the dining room she saw all the brawlers were already dressed and eating together.

"Hey guys, doesn't it seem like someone's missing?" Marucho asked those at the table. Alice sweat dropped at their forgetfulness but heard Shun sigh regretfully. _At least he didn't forget, I wonder if he was worried about me_. Alice then crept upstairs to get dressed for dinner.

* * *

Meanwhile in Masquerade's Evil lair (or summer home)…

After Masquerade got dressed into his normal attire he threw his black swim trunks onto the floor. He sighed when he saw a silver ball roll out from the bathing suit's pocket. The ball blindly searched for its master to help it. Masquerade grunted as he picked up the silvery ball, "Alright Hydranoid, since you've been a good boy, you can come out now." Masquerade started unraveling the silver duct tape which now revealed a dark bakugan.

Hydranoid made a noise as if he was gasping for sweet air, though bakugan probably don't breath in ball form, "Why are you so cruel, Master?"

Masquerade paused as if in deep thought about Hydranoid's question and then answered, "I was born that way." Though he knew he was lying, he defiantly didn't want to tell Hydranoid why he was evil (well, more like evil-acting).

"So when you were born…"

"Where are you going with this Hydranoid?"

"…you were a creepy, evil genius baby?"

Masquerade rolled his eyes, though it was undetectable, "Yes Hydranoid, I was born a creepy evil genius baby."

"Masquerade…"

Masquerade sighed when he hear the uncertainty in Hydranoid's voice, "Yes…Hydranoid?"

"Why are we the bad guys?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…why do we agree to do bad things?"

"Well, _I_ was born evil, so I have no problem with doing 'bad' things, but I don't know why _you_ agree to, you've never told me."

"I'm…not sure," Hydranoid weirdly.

"Anyways…" Masquerade said trying to think of a way to change the subject.

"Oh, master! Putting sunglasses under your mask so Alice wouldn't see your face was brilliant! How did you know the brawlers were here?" Hydranoid babbled excitedly.

"It's all about planning ahead, Hydranoid." Masquerade said mysteriously and confidently. But the truth is that Masquerade had no idea about the brawlers being here beforehand, he just put the glasses under his mask because he thought he looked cool in them. And it just happened to bring a good opportunity to tease Alice. _I'll lure her in with the promise of seeing my face, *evil mental chuckle*, she won't be able to stop thinking about me_. Unfortunately, though, Masquerade was a lot more correct than he knew…

* * *

Back to the brawlers' boring lives…

"Where have you been, Alice?" Marucho called to her in surprise as she entered the room. Alice thought about making an angry remark about he didn't even notice her absence but instead just sighed and took a seat next to Shun, who was looking at her inquisitively.

"Sorry Shun," Alice apologized, "The neighbor was there and he caught me so we ended chatting for a bit." Shun nodded his acceptance of the apology and returned to his dinner.

Marucho looked curiously at Alice, "I didn't think I had a neighbor, what's he like?"

"Oh, ummm," Alice became very nervous in voice and body langue, "He's just a…a normal guy." Alice gave an unconvincing smile. Runo was immediately suspicious for Alice only smiled nervously like that when she was lying.

"Is he a brawler?" Runo asked with suspicion clear in her voice. Shun looked up at Runo when he heard her voice. The suspicion sounded very out of place in what was supposed to be a casual conversation. Shun looked up at Alice, who was wearing that nervous smile, the one she wears when she wants people to think everything's ok. "Comon' Alice, tell me. Is he a brawler or not?"

"Uh, well, like I said, he's just a normal guy!" Alice added a nervous giggle, "It's nothing, really."

Shun looked toward Alice with a suspicious look that matched Runo's voice, "So Alice, what would this guy be like if he _wasn't_ normal?"

Alice started twirling her hair between her two fingers and the smile vanished to show the nervousness clear on her face. "W-what kind of question is that?"

Shun didn't like to see the nervousness in Alice and decided to drop the subject by shrugging, "I was just wondering."

"Geez, Shun. You ask the stupidest questions sometimes." Dan said as he had not caught the tension in the room. Leave it to an idiot to call the smart one the idiot. Shun just shrugged it off, not wanting to engage with Dan at this late hour. After dinner they washed their dishes and went to their respected rooms to get ready for bed.

* * *

Yay! Time to go back to Masky ;3…

"What?" Hydranoid yelled in surprise, "You're trying to make Alice one of your minions?"

Masquerade sighed, "Yeah, well, why not?"

"Here's a reason why not, she can't even BRAWL!"

"Well, yes, that _can_ be a bit of a problem."

"A _bit_ of a problem, Masquerade, you should at least try to make someone _useful_ become another one of your minions."

"You don't understand…"

"Huh? What do you mean I don't understand?"

"I've been observing the brawlers, including Alice, and I saw some very interesting things within their interaction. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see how things really are."

"And? What so interesting about the brawler quarreling about what to have for dinner?"

"That's the very thing, for one, they're quite dysfunctional, always arguing about the pettiest of things. Only a few people can keep them in check, and it's defiantly not Dan, though he's thought of as the leader. I've found who the real leader is."

"Shun?"

"Closer but not quite…it's Alice."

"What! But how?"

"Whenever two of them are arguing she can calm them both down, no problem. None of the others have that kind of control over each other. She's simply a leader by being a peacemaker."

"Ok, I can see that, but you don't need a peacemaker for a minion." Hydranoid protested as he secretly didn't want anything bad to happen to the brawlers.

"Maybe not, but the brawlers need her much more than I do."

"You plan to take her away just so the brawlers can't use her?" asked Hydranoid in a rather grave tone of voice.

"She's also the entire moral support for the brawlers. The center for their emotional health. Whenever they have a problem, they go to Alice. They know she can keep a secret and that she'll support them no matter what. If Alice is taken away from them, they will mentally fall, as she is the center. There are more ways you can destroy your enemies than just physically. Yes, it will be fun to watch them try to carry on without their precious little Alice." Masquerade did an evil chuckle to lighten his mood but the entire time he knew he was lying to himself. To ruin the brawlers was a good reason, but not the _main_ reason he wanted to make Alice his minion. When he thought of the way she watched him walk away from her, that puppy dog look of shallow loneliness and sadness, his insides boiled up. _I'll show her, I'll teach her how things really work in this world…and she'll never forget the lesson I will teach her…_

* * *

That night, while everyone was asleep…

"All he does is taunt you and use you, Masquerade! Why do you still follow him?" Alice said to Masquerade, tears in her eyes.

"He may be the only one in this world who understands me…"

"_I_ understand you, and even better I _care_ about you! That's something Naga could never feel for you."

"If you truly care about me you will accept the decisions _I_ make."

"But the decisions you make will only hurt you. Maybe if you join the brawlers you and I could—"

"You and I could _what_…haven't you ever heard that saying about love?"

"What saying?"

"If you truly love something, set it free, and if it comes back to you, it's yours."

"But…I don't want to see you go…"

"Then you don't truly love me, it's just a petty crush." Masquerade said as he started to fade away.

"Wait! Don't go!" Alice said as she grabbed onto the collar of Masquerade's long, white coat. "Don't go, please. I'll do anything for you to stay! Just tell me what to do!"

"Alice…wake up."

"Huh?"

"Alice…wake…up." Masquerade said with a little more force in his voice.

"But I—"

"ALICE WAKE UP, ALREADY!" Alice opened her eyes and was surprised to see Runo's face.

"Oh…it was just a dream…"

"Well you must have liked it since you didn't want to wake up from it."

"Yeah…"

Runo got annoyed, "Seriously, Alice, you've been real spacy lately."

"Oh, it nothing! Please don't worry about _me_, Runo!"

Runo sighed at her lack of progress at trying to find out what was bothering Alice. "Whatever, just get dressed so we can have breakfast."

"Alright, I'll be down in a few." Alice called as Runo walked out the bedroom and down the stairs. As Runo was searching for some grub in the kitchen she heard some small voices coming from one of the cabinets. Runo walked closer to the noise, she could hear two people, probably two bakugan considering they were in a cabinet. She could hear them giggling and shushing each other as their conversation seemed rather personal. Runo thought it would probably be better to give people privatecy in these kinds of situation but decided against it and opened to cabinet to discover a horrifying sight.

"T-tigerra?"

"M-my lady!"

"And…HYDRANOID?"

"Shhhhh, keep it down, would ya?" Hydranoid said embarassed.

"What the heck are you doing here, Hydranoid! Or more importantly, what the heck are you doing with Tigrerra?"

"Hydranoid…now might be a good time to tell her…" Tigrerra said in a rather guilty tone, as if caught red-handed.

"Wait a minute…I thought we both agreed that we would tell our respective masters…"

"Well I changed my mind." Tigrerra said in a and-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it kind of tone.

Hydranoid sighed, "Fine…Alright Runo, listen up. When a girl bakugan and a boy bakugan love each other very much—"

"NO! Not _that_ one, Hydranoid. You've got the wrong speech; I'm talking about the one where you tell Runo we've been dating for the past three months."

"WHAT?" Runo yelled in a mixture of outrage and shock.

"Whatever you're angry about, milady, I just want to say…it's all Hydranoid's fault!"

"Hey! Don't dump the psycho on _me_!"

By now Runo's face was cherry red with built up anger. "Tigerra…" Runo's voice was horse with pure rage.

"Y-yes, milady?"

"I'm going to…"

"Y-y-y-yes?" Tigrerra said in a sound that was barely audible enough to be a squeak.

"I'm going to…KILL YOU!" Runo screamed as she pulled a kitchen knife from the drawer below her and raised it threateningly above Hydranoid and Tigrerra in a downward position, as if to stab them. Hydranoid and Tigrerra looked regrettably at each other and gazed into each other's eyes as if it would be the last time they would see each other. "Wait a minute…" Runo paused in a thoughtful tone. "If Hydranoid's here…OH MY GOSH!" Runo dropped the knife in shock and as it clattered on the floor she covered her face with her hands in horror. "Masquerade is here?"

"Milady, please don't alert anyone of this." Tigrerra pleaded.

"And why not?" Runo said in a challenging tone, face turned from white (from learning of Masquerade) back into red as she glared at Tigrerra.

"I…I want to be with Hydranoid just a bit longer…" Tigrerra said in an honestly heartbroken voice.

This must have warmed Runo's heart a bit because she said, "Fine then, but if I ever find you two—"

"Runo?" an innocent voice called out from the other side of the kitchen. "Why are you yelling at a cabinet?"

Runo slammed the cabinet closed and turned to Alice with a bad acting scene of 'everything's all right'. "You know…did I ever tell you how pretty your hair looks in the sunlight?" Runo said with an unconvincing smile, all while leaning on the cabinet she just closed, defiantly as if she was hiding something inside.

A big smile then spread across Alice's face, and she began to develop an idea of what Runo could be hiding inside the cabinet. _She must be hiding my birthday present_, Alice thought as today _was_ her birthday. "All right then, have all the fun you want with the cabinet, but don't forget to take it out in time." Alice said with a little wink before skipping out the door.

Runo sweat-dropped as she had no idea what Alice was talking about. Runo sighed and looked into the other cabinets to find cereal.

* * *

December 6th After breakfast at Masquerade's part of the beach…

"Ahhhhh, I can't remember the last time I've felt this relaxed…" Masquerade said as if he was drifting away on his beach chair. "Isn't it great, Hydranoid, that we can take a break from the brawlers?" Masquerade asked his closest companion.

There was no reply.

"Hydranoid?"

Still no reply.

Masquerade sighed, "Alright, I know you're still angry at me for covering you in duct tape but can't you at least talk to me a little?"

Only the echo of the waves answered his call. Masquerade was incredibly pissed by then, and felt a little betrayed at Hydranoid's silence. He looked around for the unusually quiet black ball. Masquerade then quickly realized that Hydranoid wasn't even there. An anger mark appeared on Masquerade's head as he realized that Hydranoid must have went over to the brawlers' place, the very place he was avoiding. Masquerade tried to shrug it off by relaxing on the recliner again. _Alright, Masquerade, just ignore the outside world, deep breaths_, Masquerade tried to calm himself down. He was almost going to drift off to sleep until…

"You're up first, Shun!" squealed the voice that had become so familiar to him lately. He heard the _swish_ of a flying stick and then the _squish_ of whatever soft object the stick had hit, followed by an immediate applaud.

"Great, the game's already over!" Dan whined.

"Don't worry, Dan we've got plenty more where that came from, you can try, too." Alice said in a cheerful tone.

"Whoa! Did you see all those guts fly out?" Marucho said excitedly.

"Ew, all the juices got over my outfit." Runo complained.

"Awww, some of the pieces flew off the tarp and into the sand, I'm defiantly _not_ eating that." Julie said with a girly 'ewwww' tone.

Masquerade would have thought that this sounded very suspicious if he hadn't known that they were smashing watermelon. (A/N: In case you didn't know what watermelon smashing is, it's a game played in Japan usually in the summer. One person is blindfolded and spun around, similar to a piñata, and tries to smash a watermelon with a wooden stick. People take turns until someone successfully smashes it open. I thought it appropriate because Bakugan is Japanese and they're on a beach. Obviously Shun's strong enough that the others didn't even get a chance ;P)

Masquerade started to get very annoyed and decided to walk inside so he wouldn't have to listen to them anymore. He opened the sliding glass doors in the back and grabbed the towel on the couch to dry off any sea spray he had gotten. That was the one thing he hated about the beach, getting wet. As he dried himself he walked to the large family room with a flat screen TV. He sat down on the couch opposite to the TV. His head flew up and rested on the top of the couch as he released a long groan.

"Glad you're enjoying your vacation," said a rather menacing and familiar voice. Masquerade looked to both his side until he realized it was coming from the TV.

When he saw who it was he quickly got off the couch and gave the TV a little bow, "Lord Naga…"

"I was expecting Hydranoid, is it possible that I can talk to him privately?"

Masquerade felt nervous and further betrayed when he heard this, _Is Hydranoid keeping something from me?_ He thought. "Sure, I'll go get him," Masquerade said before remembering that Hydranoid was at the brawlers'. _Darn it, Hydranoid, I can't anger Naga any further! Not until I execute my plan…_

Back onto the brawlers' beach where they're smashing watermelon…

"No! Please! Let me try again!" Dan pleaded as he couldn't even find the watermelon. Blindfolding Dan, spinning him around three times, then giving him a stick to hit things with was probably not the best idea…

Alice sighed, "You've already _had_ your turn, Dan. It's Julie's turn now."

Julie took the blindfold off of Dan and blindfolded herself close to the watermelon. She waited for someone to spin her and hand her the stick. Dan did just that, secretly spinning her for a fourth extra time so she wouldn't be able to hit it. Yet no one was surprised when Julie somehow grew 'watermelon radar' and was able to run strait at the watermelon and successfully smash it open in one hit.

"Whoa!" Most of the brawlers awed in unison.

"I see you're all having fun." Said an out-of-place voice.

All of the brawlers turned to the direction of this voice to see, "Masquerade!" Dan yelled in surprise. (A/N: Masky is now wearing normal clothing. He would feel very awkward showing up half-naked in front of all the brawlers, regardless of it being a beach.)

_What is _he _doing here…more importantly _how _did he know we were here?_ Shun thought critically.

"Hey Masquerade! Wanna smash some watermelon? It's _really_ fun!" Julie offered cheerfully.

"No, I don't." Masquerade said annoyed.

"What? Why not?" Julie asked surprised, "That's why you came here, isn't it, to smash watermelon with us!"

"Oh please, if I wanted to smash a melon I could've just hit Dan's head with the stick." Masquerade said with a slight grin, "Plus I'm not here for stupid games, I'm here on business."

"What _kind_ of business?" Shun said while narrowing his eyes toward Masquerade.

"I'm simply here to collect Hydranoid." Masquerade said in an apathetic tone.

Marucho turned to Masquerade with a face full of surprise, "You mean…Hydranoid has been here the entire time?"

"For most of the day, at least." Masquerade said while checking his watch.

All the brawlers looked shocked, even Runo (though she was just acting for effect. "You're kidding!" Dan yelled.

"No, not really. I don't 'kid' about these kinds of thing. Oh, and, by the way, I would be very appreciative if one of you went inside and grabbed him for me. I don't really think you'd want me going into your house."

"What would give you that idea?" Shun said coldly. "It seems just like you to make a small bakugan breach enemy lines just to get him to gather information."

"Actually, Hydranoid came on his own…he's probably seeing Tigrerra." Masquerade said with a shrug, as he already guessed that Hydranoid was dating one of the brawlers' guardian bakugan.

Alice finally spoke up, "Why did Hydranoid go out of his way to see Tigrerra?"

Masquerade turned to her and shrugged, "My best guess is that he has a little crush…"

Runo got annoyed at his indifference of the issue and pointed her finger at him in accusation, "If you were a good master, you would have already known that Tigrerra and Hydranoid have been dating for _three months_!"

All the brawlers looked at Runo with widened eyes. Runo made an 'urk' face as she realized what she said.

"Wow, it's been going on for _that_ long? You know, if you were a good friend perhaps you would've told the brawlers that a long time ago, perhaps three months ago." Masquerade was still the brawlers' arch-enemy but they were all thinking the same thing. Leave it to Masquerade to mess up the brawlers just by walking in. _Even a blunt tongue can be more powerful than the sharpest of swords_, Masquerade thought with satisfaction as he watched the brawlers starting to pick up their petty arguments. All of them were on top of each other, except for Alice, that is. Masquerade looked toward Alice in curiosity. _She's so quiet sometimes…I have to admit, I don't know everything that goes on in her mind, not yet, anyways._ Masquerade turned his head away before Alice could make eye contact with him. _Even when we are not fighting each other through brawling, but rather a fight of wits, I still seem to always win_. After listening to the chaos for a while, though, Masquerade started to get bored and directed their attention onto himself, again. "So are you guys going to get Hydranoid for me or what?"

"Fine." Shun said while crossing his arms across his chest. The rest of the brawlers gave him questioning looks with eyebrows raised. Shun decided to answer the unspoken questions, "Well, he's not going to leave until he gets what he came here for and I don't think any of us want Hydranoid snooping around the house any longer…" Shun then ran into the leaving Masquerade with the rest of the brawlers.

Shun did a general look around the first floor of the house to see if he would easily spot the out-of-place ball. After searching around for the third time, Shun got very frustrated. "Hydranoid…get your butt out here…" Shun had a small anger mark on his forehead. It was bad enough that Masquerade came in for a surprise visit but now he couldn't even find Hydranoid so he could get rid of them both.

A black and purple ball rolled out from under the couch, "Master?"

"No, it's Shun. Masquerade is waiting for you outside."

"Oh, sorry! I thought the anger in your voice was unmistakable…" Hydranoid apologized. "He always threatens me when I do things he doesn't like. The really sad thing is that he's not bluffing when he says such things. One time he even covered me completely in duct tape so I couldn't move, or talk, or even breath! And I was in there for _hours_. After he let me out he said, 'You can fix almost anything with duct tape, including an annoying bakugan'. Way to add insult to injury, right? But _you_ guys don't mistreat bakugan let that, right...Shun?" Hydranoid started to babble but then noticed the dark expression on Shun's face.

Shun was tired of this…his patience has run thin, and if Hydranoid muttered one more word Shun was going to do something that Hydranoid would never forget. As you can tell Shun was in a pretty bad mood and for multiple reasons, too. Shun couldn't help but look back on all the things that were bothering him and connect them back to one person…Masquerade.

Alice was being all spacy and weird, and she hardly tried to talk to anyone anymore. (And it's probably because **Masquerade** did something weird to her at the Christmas party, that's when her strange behavior started.)

1.** Masquerade** suddenly shows up. (I don't think Shun needs to explain why this bothers him.)

2. He had to search for one of the most annoying bakugan in existence. (Because **Masquerade** wouldn't go away without him.)

3. He never got the chance to give Alice his present and show his true feelings for her. (Because **Masquerade** had to stroll in at that exact time.)

4. He got hit in the crotch with a wooden stick during watermelon smashing. (Because **Masquerade**…wait a minute that was Dan's fault…because Dan's a total idiot and shouldn't be trusted while blindfolded…)

5. But Dan was probably a total idiot because Shun once saw **Masquerade** hit him in the head with a rock. (Ok, by this point, Shun's starting to lose rational…)

It all had to do with _him_. At by now Shun was at his braking point. Shun would justify what he would do to Hydranoid next by claiming he was used to being mistreated. Shun roughly grabbed Hydranoid and ran to the back door. He ran toward Masquerade, clutching Hydranoid hard, and stopped five feet away from him.

"Well, are you going to give me Hydranoid or not?" Masquerade said more as a command than a question.

Shun just continued to coldly glare at Masquerade. Alice became aware of this and suddenly got nervous, backing away from the two.

"Well?" Masquerade demanded with a hint of impatience in his voice.

Shun's icy glare suddenly turned into a look of fiery rage. "Take him!" Shun yelled as he threw Hydranoid, point blank, at Masquerade's face. "Now get off my property…" Shun muttered while pointing to the end of the lot.

"Ummm, actually, Shun. It's kinda _my_ property…" Marucho corrected. Runo quickly put her hand over Marucho's mouth, not wanting him to be involved in the upcoming crossfire. Hydranoid fell from Masquerade's face to reveal his bloody nose. Masquerade made no attempt to catch Hydranoid and so he hit the sand running, trying desperately to distance himself from the two raging brawlers, struggling in the resistant sand. Both Masquerade and Shun crouched into a fighting position and Shun realized that this would be the start of a _real_ brawl…

**

* * *

**

**A/N:** Alright, readers. I need your help! I wanted this to be pure comedy but somehow it's become a romance with a love triangle! I need your opinion. Do you guys like the romance thingy or do you guys find it annoying? Do you have any other pairing to suggest? Should I go back to humor only? Should I keep it a simple humor act or add the plot line I've been coming up with (it has to do with Masky's past and explains why he's following Naga, why he's pursuing Alice, ect, ect)? Do you guys find Alice too annoying or too obsessed about Masquerade? Would it be better if I 'toned it down' a bit? Do you think Shun should get a chance at Alice once in a while instead of just trying to 'catch up' with the love triangle.

And if you have any questions to ask _me_ then you can ask them in your reviews or PM me about one and (if you like) I'll answer them in the beginning A/N's. Alright then, thanks to everyone who has reviewed, alerted, favorite, and just plain _read_ my story! It's thanks to you guys that this story has become so long! And special thanks to JetravenEx for keeping me _super_ motivated. Jet, I can't tell if it's a blessing or a cure that you can nag me about the story in real life, but thanks anyways!


	7. December 6th Time For a REAL Brawl!

**A/N:**

kd: I know, I know. Shortest chapter yet. _But_it's not cause I'm lazy it's cause I didn't want to leave you guys hanging and I also wanted to end with an awesome cliffy.

Masquerade: Wow, you just keep making _excuses_...

kd: Thanks...Masquerade...-.-

Masquerade: No problem ;)

kd: Hmmm, you seem to be in a better mood than normal.

Masquerade: Yeah, I've got to thank you, I can't wait to kick Shun's butt!

kd: Huh?

Masquerade: I'm going to kick Shun's butt...right?

kd: Ummm...yeah, sure...

Masquerade: ...

Hydranoid: You're so going to die, Masquerade =D

* * *

There was dead silence. A silence that became loud enough to overcome wailing tide. Two teenage boys glared at each other. One a glare of ice and one of fire, both extremely deadly. Even the very air seemed tense as the two stayed crouched in their starting stance. In a flash Shun came at Masquerade, long hair trailing behind him. Masquerade tried to duck from Shun's incoming fist but Shun still managed to hit Masky in the shoulder. Masquerade didn't want to lose balance so he sifted forward so that the sand behind him would take the energy as he was sent back a couple of inches, feet dragging in the sand. Shun took advantage of this position and lift him fist above his head, later to come down on Masquerade's. That's when Masky decided to do something unexpected. Just as Shun's fist was about to come down Masquerade dropped to the ground. In Shun's momentary confusion Masquerade took the opportunity to slide across the sand, in between Shun's legs. He considered the option of kicking Shun in between the legs but then he remembered that Dan had already done that for him. Instead Masquerade propped himself on his elbows and kicked Shun's back with one, hard kick. Shun fell forward into the sand just as a wave was coming in, too. Masquerade stood up and dusted the sand off of his coat while Shun got a good splash in the face to wake him up.

Shun went to all fours and looked at Masquerade from over his shoulder, "You're just full of lousy tricks, aren't you?"

Masquerade wasn't really paying attention to what Shun said but was more so mentally laughing at Shun's. He found it ironic that he was being given such a lovely view of Shun's rear end and decided to challengingly say, "Stand up or I'll kick your ass." It defiantly wasn't the way he's normally say things, he'd usually come up with something a little more clever. But right now he was in the middle of a fight and felt no reason to be verbally witty at this time; he'd rather be blunt and strait to the point than one of hidden intentions.

Shun slowly got up and turned around, "You know, you've got a lot of nerve for someone who's about to lose a fight."

"Sorry to break this to you, Shun, but I hardly ever lose." Shun was confused by the way Masquerade said this because instead of his usual voice, that was brimming with confidence and witty remarks, his voice held an odd, sad tone. As if he was stating the sad truth. "I guess you could say it's a curse of mine." said Masquerade with a wave of his hand, as if it didn't matter but Shun could tell his true attitude about it was very different. With Shun still being taken aback by what Masquerade said, Masky decided to make his move. Masquerade came at Shun and raised his fisted arm, holding back nothing. But when Masquerade brought his fist down, the sand flew up in a reverse cascading effect, he had hit the ground. Masquerade then felt a hand on his back as he realized that Shun had jumped from his former spot and was using his back as support as he completed a flip and landed gracefully on the sand behind Masquerade.

Masquerade and Shun turned to each other at the same time.

"Well, talk about lousy tricks." Masquerade said with his usual smirk.

"_That_ was pure physical ability; it's something you'd probably never be able to do."

"You wanna bet?" Masquerade said confidently.

"Enough of this." Shun said impatiently as he charged at Masquerade again. He extended his fist strait at Masquerade's chest but Masquerade artfully dodged it by turning sideways, at the last second. Masquerade then smashed his right shoulder into Shun's chest. Shun fell onto his back. He then pushed himself on one arm and leg while trying to sweep Masquerade off his feet with the other leg. Masquerade saw this coming, though, and simply jumped over Shun's moving leg. Shun stood strait by completing the rotation of his leg and then tried to punch Masquerade in the gut. Masquerade managed to block the punch using both of his hands.

He knew he avoided what would have been a very painful punch but now he found himself at a disadvantage. Now that he had Shun's hand he could grab his arm and maybe throw him (or flip him fabia-style) but Masquerade knew all too well that he wasn't strong enough to do that. Plus, Shun had him in close range and a little more mobility than him because Masquerade had to use two hands to block only _one_of his. Masquerade saw that he was extremely open to Shun's next attack so when he became aware of Shun's incoming leg for a kick he quickly took a step back. Shun had put a lot a power into the kick and so with nothing to kick at his entire body turned away from Masquerade. But when Shun turned around he couldn't see Masquerade anywhere. Shun then realized that Masquerade must have used his dimensional transporter. Shun fell to his knees and punched the sanded ground saying, "Lousy trick!" The rest of the brawlers, now that the fight was over, gathered around Shun.

"Hey, you should have done that, like, _years_ ago!" Dan said excitedly.

"Yeah…that guy's been getting on my nerve lately…" Shun said distantly.

"I don't blame him for running away, after all Shun _is_a ninja!" Runo said in a way that was meant to compliment Shun.

"There is no good reason to run away from a fight…" Shun said with a small trace of anger left in his voice. The brawlers then became aware of a small sobbing noise. "Alice?" Shun asked concerned.

"Why…" Alice tried to speak in her small, shaky voice but ended up trailing off into more sobbing, her hands covering her face. The brawlers waited for her to finish. "Why…can't we just get along?" The brawlers stayed silent. By now they were all extremely curious to why Alice always defended Masquerade. It was almost as if…they were friends. Some of the brawlers shivered at the thought. Could this be considered as betrayal? Shun then realized that Masquerade was probably this 'normal' neighbor that Alice had met. He decided he was going to get to the bottom of this so he quietly sneaked over the boarder of rocks.

* * *

At Masquerade's house…

Masquerade walked into his living room and turned to the flat screen TV expecting to return to Naga, so he flinched when he saw the ugly face of Hal-G instead. Masquerade understood what this meant so he said, "So do you have it?"

"Oh my, Masquerade. Strait to the point, today, aren't we?"

"Do you have it or not?"

"Yes, yes, I have it. But you seriously owe me; it took me _forever_ to even find this stuff!" On the screen, next to Hal-G's face, appeared images of ancient runes. "First of all, not all 24 pieces were in the same collection, most were spread out to every part of the world!"

Masquerade quickly eyed the images flashing on the screen and said, "Alright, you've got the right ones. I would appreciate it if you faxed it to the beach house."

"By the way, Masquerade."

"Yeah?" Masquerade said with slight impatience.

"Obviously you wouldn't send me out to find this stuff unless you knew a little of what they say…"

"And?" Masquerade asked as he crossed his arms.

Hal-G got extremely annoyed by and so what he said next came out as harsh and hasty, "_And_, what the heck does this stuff say? Why in the world do you need this stuff. And, most importantly, how do you even know how to _translate_ this stuff? Not even the experts can figure this junk out."

"That's for me to know and you to never find out." Masquerade said to Hal-G as his goodbye as he started to walk away from the TV. Hal-G sighed and disappeared from the screen.

Masquerade walked upstairs to the tiny office room that the house held and was satisfied to see the images he saw earlier printing from the fax machine. The images contained squiggly runes, obviously from a dead langue, and sometimes a primitive drawing of a dragon or a strange circular pattern (think 'transmutation circle' from Full Metal Alchemist) appeared. Masquerade opened a word document on the small computer and started typing away as he translated the strange scribe.

After a while Masquerade got very tired and mentally drained as he had translated an entire sheet, but with 23 pages to go. He decided to take a break and used his DT (dimensional transporter) to find bakugan brawlers to disappoint, leaving the word document open. At his swift disappearance Shun quickly climbed in through the open window. Shun looked around and saw the same images on Masquerade's desk as he saw on the TV screen when he watched Masquerade's video chat with Hal-G. Shun couldn't hear exactly what they said but he knew that the images held great importance and that Masquerade said little, which annoyed Hal-G. It wasn't must information but this office had already proven to hold many more clues. His soon noticed the document Masquerade had left open, a document titled 'Translation'. Shun almost laughed out loud at this act of stupidity. Not only had he left the window open, so that it almost seemed like an obvious invitation, he also left the extremely important document open.

Shun quickly tried to read it but found it to be quite difficult. It must have been a literal translation because some of the phrases were hard to understand what exactly it meant. For example, the first half of the page explained the relationship that white bakugan had with the rest of nature. Shun was interested that it had to do with bakugan, and white bakugan which made it all the more interesting, but he truly didn't care about the 'auras' involved or what it had to do with the rest of nature. Shun finally found something interesting when he saw that the rest contained information about a ritual used to kill a powerful white bakugan. Shun then discovered, with much disgust, that the ritual required a human sacrifice that had to trust the one performing the ritual. Shun's stomach twisted into knots as he came to the horrible realization of what Masquerade was going to do…


	8. December 6th To Rekindle the Heart!

**A/N:**

kd: Hey everyone! Sorry about the short chapter last time. My escuse is that the last chapter was pure plot, right? Well you guys must've liked it because even though it was the shortest chapter, I had the most reviews for that chapter than any other. So thanks for all your reviews, guys! There's a lot of plot in this chapter, too, but I put in a pretty big Hydranoid filler that I hope you'll like!

Hydranoid: Finally! _My _time to shine! Take that, Masquerade!

Masquerade: What are you yaping about? Why would I care if you get a filler or not if this entire story is about _me_?

Hydranoid: You know, you're not the _only_ person in this story!

Masquerade: Yeah, but I'm the only one that really matters.

Hydranoid: why you conceited, little…

kd: Alright, guys! Let's not fight!

Hydranoid + Masquerade: He started it…

Jet: Yeah, well, I'm ending it!

kd: Huh? Jet? How'd you randomly appear in this dialouge?

Jet: Magic…

kd: Oh, yeah, that explains it.

* * *

Shun leaned on the desk for support as the room was starting to spin. He tried to calm himself with deep breaths as he forced his racing mind to focus on the earlier events. He remembered that Masquerade had conversed with Hal-G yet said very little (because Shun could only see Masquerade's mouth movements but not hear what he had said). This might have meant that Hal-G was ordering him. Yet Shun found this unlikely that Masquerade took orders from _Hal-G_because Shun knew that Masquerade personally detested Hal-G. So it probably meant that Naga was giving orders through Hal-G, and the order probably was to translate the ancient text that was faxed to Masquerade. But it became quite confusing at this point, because it's rather stupid for a white bakugan to hand over the instructions to perform a ritual that destroys white bakugan. Unless…unless Naga ordered Masquerade to kill another white bakugan. But the only other white bakugan Shun knew was…Wyvern…and the ritual also required a human sacrifice that trusted the one performing the ritual.

That's when Shun's stomach started to knot. It all made sense now. Alice was acting spacy probably because Masquerade was trying to gain her trust…and it was _working_. Now Alice actually cares about Masquerade and it may just lead to her death. His heart beat rapidly and the room continued to spin as he was forced to sit down or fall to the ground, so Shun quickly took a seat in the office chair. When his head finally stopped spinning he tried to think up a plan to foil Masquerade's.

_I need to warn Alice!_ Shun though desperately. _But…now that she actually_, Shun shivered, _trusts Masquerade, she may just say that I'm being jealous of her, or that I just dislike Masquerade_. Shun was at his wit's end. He needed to tell _someone_ about Masquerade's plans. Then Shun remembered that Alice wasn't the only one involved with this. _I need to call Joe…_

Shun, who was too shocked to think clearly, called Joe from Masquerade's home phone. Shun waited as the phone rung and then heard a…

"Hello?" Joe's voice came in through the phone.

"Joe! I'm so glad I could get a hold of you!" Shun said very relieved.

"Whoa! Looks like someone missed me, you know we saw each other, like, three or four days ago…"

"I'm not here cause I _miss_ you, you jerk! This is _serious_!"

Joe felt scared himself as he could hear Shun's urgency, "So, what's the problem?" Joe said, now completely serious.

"I think Wyvern's in trouble…"

"What? Why would you say that?"

"It has something to do with Masquerade…"

"Well, uh, what's the worst a person can do to a bakugan in ball-form?"

"…"

"Shun?"

"I think Masquerade is trying to kill Wyvern…"

"Shun…this better not be some kind of prank call, because how in the _world_do you kill a bakugan?"

"I think he's using some ancient ritual that requires a human sacrifice."

Joe audibly gulped in fear, "Human…sacrifice?"

"Yes I think he's going to use Alice."

"Shun, that's…"

Shun waited.

"…the most _ridiculous_ prank call script I've ever heard. Oh please, an ancient ritual about _bakugan_? You know, bakugan only came to earth fairly recently."

"I know, that's what confuses me…"

"Alright, Shun, call me back when you have something to say that _isn't_ part of a prank call."

"Wait, no, Joe. Don't—"

Shun's only answer was the constant, low, ringing from the phone that indicated that Joe had hung up. Shun slammed the phone into the phone holder and ran out of Masquerade's house in anger. _If Joe won't even believe me, how can I expect anyone to believe me?_ Now that Shun thought about the past events in his head he realized that what he claimed really _did_seem ridiculous. Ancient rituals? Human sacrifices? All for killing a bakugan (which may or may not be possible)? He realized just how stupid he sounded over the phone. _What do I do now?_

Shun slumped all the way home, feeling hopeless in the tragedy that may soon befall his best friend, Alice. The brawlers were inside eating dinner while Shun was still in his bathing suite. He sneaked upstairs and changed to join the other brawlers.

* * *

Later that evening…

The phone rang in haunting tones in the close-to-empty house. A few moments later someone did pick up the phone.

"May I help you?" a boy said in an irritated tone, rather than someone who actually wanted to help the person.

"Ummm, yes…is there anyone there who knows anything about bakugan rituals?" answered an unidentified voice.

Masquerade almost dropped the phone in shock. He barely got done translating the thing and now someone already knows about it? "Uh, sorry, you must have the wrong number."

"No, I have the right number. The white bakugan are on to you…" said the voice in a scary tone.

Masquerade was scared…yes, the great Masquerade was scared. He knew what Naga could do to him if he found out what he was planning.

"If you put _one_finger on Wyvern, I swear I will go over there and kick your butt."

Masquerade now recognized the voice, "Wait a minute…Joe?"

"Yeah, what's it to you, Masquerade?" Joe tried to sound tough.

Masquerade almost laughed aloud. He was actually _scared_that Naga had found out his plans, but it was only Joe (who was scared of almost everything) that had found out and called him because he thought he was after _Wyvern_. It doesn't get any funnier than this when you're a villain. Masquerade felt like telling Joe that he was wrong, so he could call Joe stupid for jumping to conclusions, but Masquerade saw that he would be in a better situation if Joe misinterpreted his intentions. "So, what are you going to do about it?"

Joe had no answer as he sat in silent fear for Wyvern (and Alice).

"Hello? Anyone home?"

"Thanks…for sharing this with me…" Then Joe hung up.

"Sheesh, those guys are getting weirder and weirder…" Masquerade said to himself as he hung up the phone. _Wait a minute…how'd he get my number anyways?_Masquerade thought deeply. Somehow his computer was hacked of his translation before he even saved it into the hard drive…something was up. He tried to think about when his personal information may was been in the open, when he had let his guard down. He then realized that he left the house wide open when he decided to take a break and used the DT (dimensional transporter) to exit the house, with the computer still on. What if…holy crap! _Alice must've read the translation and told Joe about it!_ Who else could it be? She was the only one who knew he lived here unless…_Well, the other brawlers may have seen me cross the rocks on my way off their beach_, Masquerade thought. _So hopefully it wasn't Alice, it doesn't seem like her to break into people's houses…although she _is_ a little obsessed about me_. Masquerade decided not to jump to conclusions, like what Joe did, and decided his next course of precaution.

* * *

Meanwhile…

"Ummm, hey…Hydranoid." Runo said trying to make conversation.

"Yes, human?" Hydranoid replied. (A/N: He sneaked back to the brawlers' again.)

"Ummm, aren't you, like, obsessed about being the ultimate bakugan? So don't you see everyone as a rival? How'd you fall in love with Tigrerra, anyways?"

"Ah, yes, well it all started that one night…"

* * *

Hydranoid POV: flashback to sometime in the fall

Me and Masquerade were unstoppable. No one could stand in our way. And for a small amount of time, I was mildly satisfied. But I would never be happy because even with so much training, I was still bossed around by the _true_ultimate bakugan…Naga. As long as I was in his shadow he snuffed out any light of hope for me. My dreams slowly crumbled away as I realized there was no way I could catch up to Naga. His presence was a consent reminder of my eternal failure and soon after, my former high spirits plummeted to the ground, joining the remains of my dream that was the abyss of my dark heart. Yet I continued going through the motions of life. After a while Masquerade started to notice it as well.

"Hey, Hydranoid," he asked one afternoon, "wanna make brawlers cry for their bakugan?" he said with an evil grin.

"I think I'll pass…" I said as I continued to look out the open window, wishing the light breeze could lift my heavy heart.

"Hydranoid…you need to get stronger." Masquerade replied with slight impatience.

"Oh…do I?" I felt detached from the conversation, and my voice must have reflected because Masquerade started snapping at me.

"What's wrong with you, Hydranoid? Lately you've been real spacy and you've been slacking off during brawls, as if you don't give a care in the world!"

"So then maybe I don't 'give a care in the world'…"

"Alright, that's it!" Masquerade yelled as he picked me up from the windowsill.

"What the heck are you doing?" I asked in irritation.

"Get a life, or get out!" Masquerade yelled as he threw me out the open window. It's a shame our mansion goes up to four floors…I landed on the ground, happy that the grass was there to soften my fall. I looked back at the house and saw Masquerade slam the window closed. Just what I needed, now my Master has kicked me out onto the streets (or more like threw me onto the lawn). Man, aren't there any bakugan abuse laws out there? Not really having any desire to go back to the mansion, I wondered around town. I went to the park that Masquerade me and Masquerade used to brawl at. It was crowded, since it was such a nice day. I was stepped on twice before I could find an appropriate hiding place. I rolled under the root of a giant tree and watched the children contently play with brilliant smiles on their faces. Everything was bright and happy around me and I felt jealous at the rest of the world for allowing such happiness to exist while I laid in gloomy exile.

I just continued to watch the people pass by, hoping their bright modes might lighten my dark one. But no such thing could happen to such a lonely bakugan and before long night fell around me, cold and starless, with only the moon as a companion. I continued watching the now empty park when I saw…a small white ball? No, it was a haos bakugan. It (I thought of her as 'it' at the time because you can't tell at first glance weather a bakugan is a girl or boy) rolled along the path and then jumped up on a park bench. I sneaked from under the tree root to get a closer look. I could tell that it was a female mammal-like bakugan. The light swirling down from the park lamp posts reflected off her ball form invitingly. I jumped on the park bench next to her. By now he could tell that it was defiantly Tigrerra. I was right next to her but she didn't notice, she was looking up at the starless sky. She then sighed a sigh of content. I was confused by this gesture.

"Why are you sighing?" I asked her.

Tigrerra jumped in surprised, "Hydranoid?"

"Why were you sighing?" I reaped my question, not wanting to have to explain why I was here, stuck at the park.

"Oh…uh, I was just thinking about how beautiful the sky looks tonight. I looked up at the empty sky and then at her as if she was crazy. What was she really looking at, anyways? "So, uh, why are you here?" Tigrerra asked. Darn, now that she asked there's really no reason to avoid the question.

"My master, Masquerade, threw me out, I've nowhere else to go."

I heard Tigrerra gasp, "But…why? You're his best bakugan!"

"I guess I was taking up shelf space…"

"But how could _you_, the guardian bakugan of the number one ranked brawler, be a waste of space?"

"Maybe I don't deserve to be his partner, after all, I could never become the ultimate bakugan…"

"What! That's absurd! You're the strongest bakugan I know!" Tigrerra said with passion.

"Wait…what?"

"I'm not kidding, you could whip anyone's butt, even Drago's!"

"Why…"

"…"

"Why are you saying this to an enemy?"

"…How could I turn away a lost bakugan? Enemy or not?" She said a bit motherly.

"Do you really think…I'm that strong?"

"I don't think, I _know_. Hydranoid, in my eyes you're already the ultimate bakugan because what you don't have in strength, you make up for in determination."

I then realized that she was right, who said that being the ultimate bakugan was determined by strength alone? And in that very moment, I fell in love, and I could see the stars again. As we looked into the beautiful sky together I realized that it was only her opinion that mattered to me. As long as I was the ultimate bakugan in her eyes, then I actually _was_the ultimate bakugan. Her brilliant light entered by dark heart and lifted my spirits again, restoring my weakened heart. At the same time I also admitted that I _wasn't _the ultimate bakugan…Tigrerra was, we both were. I was the shadow and she was the light, neither existing without each other yet existing at the same greatness. As long as we existed together then nothing could stop us. My dream was no longer to become the ultimate bakugan, but to be with Tigrerra…until the end of time, shadow, and light.


	9. December 6th Why Does He Do It?

**A/N:**

kd: Hey guys! Thanks for reading! I'm a bit late in updating because I'm currently in Flordia on spring break. It's a bit of a coincidence that I'm in Flordia while I'm making Masquerade leave Flordia in this chapter. Oh, well. I don't think this chapter is all that much, just Masquerade scaring Hydranoid and Shun trying to figure what the Masky's planning to do, but I hope you enjoy this chapter anyways!

* * *

"Wow what a nice story, Hydranoid." Said a certain blonde.

"Why thank you…" Hydranoid trailed off as he realized it wasn't Runo who said that. He slowly turned around to see the cold stare of his master. "M-m-masquerade!"

"That's my name, don't wear it out." He said as he leaned his back against the wall.

"How'd you get in here?" Runo asked. Masquerade pointed to the open window next to him with his thumb. "Alright, then, _why_ are you here?"

Masquerade didn't answer her directly as he looked at his bakugan and said, "Hydranoid, we're leaving."

"What! But I was in the middle of—"

"Now." Masquerade said, rudely cutting off Hydranoid. Hydranoid just looked sadly at Runo and then rolled toward his master, who picked him up and used the DT. And just like that, Masquerade's vacation ended.

Back at Masky's Mansion

"Why are we here?" Hydranoid asked as Masquerade dropped him onto the floor of their home.

"Why _wouldn't_ we be here?" Masquerade artfully dodged his question.

"You know, 'cause we're on something called a _vaccine_."

"Well, not anymore."

"Alright, fine. I get it. Vaccine's over, but why so abruptly?"

"Because that's the way I roll, if you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen." Masquerade said, briskly walking to the computer room. Hydranoid knew that when Masquerade used such phrases which excluded people from his thoughts, that there was something bothering him. So Hydranoid silently followed him, hoping to find out what it was. The way to the computer room was kind of creepy. At night Masquerade's mansion looked like it was owned by a classical vampire, not a teenage brawler. Yet what made it the creepiest by far was that, since Masquerade inherited the mansion, his most personal and darkest secrets laid deep in the house.

Hydranoid knew little, if anything, about Masquerade's past. And though he didn't know much information of Masquerade's past, he knew where to _find_it. There are parts of the mansion that not even Hydranoid is allowed through. One of these areas is a closet door that Hydranoid cannot pass. And it was probably the most darkest and tempting of all the restricting places because he would have to pass by it every time he walked down the hall to the computer room. It was tempting…and yet creepily so. Hydranoid didn't know whether to feel intrigued or fearful of this door as its dark wood loomed over him and the shadow through the bottom crack seemed to grab at him.

Hydranoid stopped following Masquerade to stare at the door. _Do I dare go in?_He continued to stare at the door in wonder. What could be in there that Masquerade would hide it from his own guardian bakugan? Could there be pictures? Of his parents Hydranoid had heard very little about? Or maybe…pictures of Masquerade, _before_he was Masquerade, maybe you could see his real face! Or even better…one of Masquerade's baby pictures. But Hydranoid tried to quickly throw away the last thought as a mental image of a baby with the head of Masquerade (mask and all) came into his mind. Hydranoid shivered, the image of that creepy, evil, genius baby will forever scar Hydranoid, that was for sure…

"So, you're thinking about going through that door, huh?" Hydranoid jumped five feet into the air as Masquerade surprised him. Masquerade actually sensed that Hydranoid was no longer following him so he just turned around and watched him stare at the door.

_That's so cute, he's actually scared of a _door. Masquerade thought humorously. "You know, I tell you not to go through certain doors for a reason."

"Because you'd be embarrassed if I saw your personal information?"

"Uh, not really. I guess you haven't heard about my aunt, then…"

"You have an aunt?"

"Well, _used to_ would be a better use of words, but yes, I do, Aunt Mariel."

Hydranoid gulped, "Wha-what happened to her?"

"Oh, how madly in love was Aunt Mariel that she did not know if she could live without her husband." Masquerade said rather over dramatically.

"And?" Hydranoid said, wanting to get to the point.

"Well, one day she got hit by a car and—"

"_That's_ how she died? Then what about what you said earlier, about the love— "

"_And_ became paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 26."

"Wow, that sucks. What happened after that?"

"Her husband left her. She became so depressed she went into the closet and refused to come out, even for meals."

"_This _closet?" Hydranoid said, a bit scared.

"Yes, _that_ closet. After a while people just forgot about her until one day, three months later, the maid came in to look for cleaning supplies and discovered Aunt Mariel's body, withering in her wheelchair, an empty shell of a woman…"

Hydranoid was now shaking.

"And now they say her very ghost resides in this very closet, waiting for her true love to come back for her…" Masquerade then, without another word, turned around and walked away. Hydranoid hastily followed behind, losing all interest in the door.

* * *

At the brawlers'

"What do you mean, he just disappeared into thin air?" Alice asked Runo in disappointment.

"Well, yeah. He kinda seemed very preoccupied, to be honest." Runo said.

Shun was listening and he was satisfied that Masquerade was probably far, far, away but he also found this action a bit strange. _Is he already trying to prepare for the ritual?_Shun thought as he tried to fully understand Masquerade's motive, finding out very little besides that he was after Wyvern. The more he thought about it the more he ended up wondering why Masquerade was working for Naga in the first place. It just didn't make sense. No matter how much Shun tried to find cause and effect throughout Masquerade's action but he only got this far, Masquerade befriended Alice so he could kill Wyvern Masquerade was plotting to kill Wyvern because Naga ordered him to do so Masquerade follows Naga's orders because he works for him Masquerade works for Naga because…? There was really no answer, still so many gaps to fill, it couldn't be as simple as he made it in his mind.

"What's wrong, Shun?" Dan asked Shun, making Shun slightly startled as Dan interrupted him from his deep concentration. "Scared you, didn't I?"

"Oh please, I'm a ninja; I don't get scared; I get defensive." Shun said with a dismissing wave of his hand.

"Call it what you want but you were _so_ scared." Dan said confidently.

Shun shrugged it off, "If you say so." Then Shun thought he would see what the other brawlers thought about why Masky worked for Naga. "So…Dan…"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you think Masquerade works for Naga?" Shun asked seriously.

"Because he's evil, why else?"

"It can't really be that simple."

"But it _is_. Don't you see Shun? Evil people work for other, powerful, evil people. And it's our job to stop those who are evil."

"You know, there _are_grey areas, it's not just black and white. There must be another reason Masquerade would just let some oversized white lizard boss him around."

"Shun, stop over reading this, why would you even need to find out _why_ he does this stuff. The important thing is that he does it anyways."

"Alright then, _Dan_, then how about this? Why is Masquerade evil?"

"Ummm…he was born that way?" (A/N: Great, now I can't get the song 'Born This Way' out of my head!)

"So people are bron either good or evil and later in life they just battle it out?"

"Yup."

Shun sighed, "I _wish_ the world was as simple as you see it, Dan."

Dan rolled his eyes, "Stop being an idiot, Shun, the world _is_ simple."

And there goes Dan, calling the smart one the idiot again…

Shun walked over to Runo, "Runo, for what reason does Masquerade work for Naga?"

Runo just stared at Shun, "Oh, I don't know, well, actually, my best guess would be that he's a sadist."

"A sadist?"

"Yeah, he just gets that creepy smile on his face whenever he sends a bakugan to the doom dimension and watches their owners cry. It's kinda sickening, to tell you the truth. It's as if he takes pleasure in the great loss of others. It's downright haunting. He knew if he could team up with Naga he would have lots of opportunities to fight and win against other brawlers, it's as simple as that."

"Um, thanks Runo."

"No problem."

Shun had to admit Runo had a point, he _was_a bit of a sadist, but there must have been another reason because Naga doesn't always order him to fight against brawlers. Shun didn't like Masquerade but there was something close to respect that he felt for Masquerade. He refused to underestimate him and just give in, thinking that he simply joined Naga because he was evil or a sadist, even if it was true. He decided to ask Marucho, because he was pretty intelligent, something that's lacking in the brawlers as a whole. Shun looked around the corner to see Marucho quickly type into a normal computer. "Hey, Marucho."

Marucho spun around in the office chair to face Shun, "What's up Shun?"

"I'm just wondering, I'd like your opinion in something."

Marucho got excited, people barely pretended to notice him and now one of the most respected brawlers was asking for _his_ opinion, "Yes?"

Shun was a bit taken aback by Marucho's obvious excitement but continued, anyways, "Why do you think Masquerade works for Naga?"

Marucho didn't really know how to answer this, so he said, "'Cause he's evil….right?"

Shun sighed, he was hoping that Marucho, the smart one, would be able to come up with something a little more creative.

Marucho then decided to change his answer, "But maybe…maybe he does it for the money. I mean, he owns a mansion, and the beach house next to us. I doubt he owns those things personally. Working for Naga must have some perks. And if Naga is trying to dominate the world, then Masquerade might get a piece of it."

Then Shun asked Julie (I think it was more for entertainment)…

"Obviously Masquerade likes Naga!"

"…WHAT?"

"I mean, yeah, people work for other people they like, isn't that how it works? You know, I work with you guys…"

Then Shun decided to finally ask Alice. He quickly looked around the house and found Alice sitting in a chair, looking out the window. "Hey Alice, I have a question."

Alice turned around in the chair enough to face Shun, "Yes, Shun?"

Shun almost didn't want to ask since she was acting weird about the subject but he thought, now or never, "Why do you think Masquerade works for Naga?"

Alice looked at Shun a bit weird but answered anyways, "Because Naga's the only one who understands him…"

"Because Naga _understands_ him?"

Alice blushed as she realized that that was what Masquerade had said in her dream, _Because he may be the only one in this world who understands me_. "Well, I've asked myself that a lot but I've just come to the conclusion that Naga just understands him well, after all, here we are questioning his very motives, we don't understand him so he must appreciate someone who I _can_ come to understand him."

_Whatever his reason_, Shun thought, _he sure is one wacked guy…_


	10. December 6th Where is it, Hydranoid?

**A/N: This is important, please read!**

kd: Hey Guys! I looked at all of your reviews and I was so happy to hear about all of your satisfactory about this story! And I know that all of the brawlers' reasons for Masky being evil were kinda stupid. I'm purposefully making them oblivious, the real answer is none of those.

I've come up with my own reason for him working for Naga which is much more dramatic and sensible than the reasons the brawlers came up with. So please don't think I'm coming up with stupid reasons _myself_, I just thought that would be what the brawlers would say if they were asked that question. So stick around for the good stuff, I think you're gonna like it!

And to end on a positive note I'd like to thank all my readers and reviewers. I updated last time over spring break (in flordia) and when I came back I was so happy to see all of your reviews! You guys r the best, I truly don't deserve you guys! ^.^, and thanks to all those who have read, favorite, alearted and reviewed my story. And with that I give you…the tenth chapter~

"Computer, start!" A blonde commanded through the darkness of the computer room. Light from a giant computer screen, hung on the wall, filled the room with unnatural light. Through the blue light you could see a cubicle flashdrive connected to the computer. "Show me Alice's data." The computer screen turned black for a moment then showed a large picture of Alice with text to the right. "Hmmm, for not being a brawler Marucho sure put a lot of information in about her," Masquerade quickly looked at some of the text, "It's more about what he personally knows about her…"

He continued to skim through the text. It was almost like Marucho's personal diary entries about her. Like her favorite ice flavor is vanilla, she likes walking through the park and starwatching with Runo, Marucho thinks she has a crush on Masquerade and that Shun has a crush on Alice, her favorite color is green, she said that if see _did_ become a brawler she'd use darkus, she sometimes acts like Dan's mother, and she's a good listener, stupid stuff like that. Masquerade was half asleep before he was even halfway done reading her profile. _God, what stupid information, only a little kid would care about this stuff_, Masquerade thought before he realized that Marucho wrote about that stuff because he _was_ a little kid. _I just hope that not all of the data is stupid and irrelevant like this. I busted my chop trying to get all of this without Shun and that nosy website manager in my way_. After a while Masquerade just got bored and decided to look up someone else. "Show me all data about Shun."

The computer flashed again and brought a picture of Shun with text around it. Masquerade could tell this had a lot more useful information regarding Shun's bakugan and all of his cards, including some of his favorite strategies and ways people have tried to counter them. _Now THIS is what I'm talkin' about!_ Masquerade thought excitedly as all of Shun's weaknesses were poured right in front of him.

"No…NO! Julie, please! Don't put me inside the egg! DARN IT!" Dan yelled as the Super Smash Bros: Brawl Toon Link was swallowed and turned into an egg by Yoshi who then pooped him off the edge of 'The Final Destination' stage.

"You can't handle the power of Yoshi!" Julie said excitedly while pointed at Dan, who had gloom clouds over his head. On the TV screen Yoshi stood idle in the middle of the stage as Julie was distracted. Snake quickly shot a heat-sensing missle at Yoshi, who was already at 140% damage, and blew him off the stage. "Huh?" Julie said as she heard the sound of someone losing their life. "HEY!" She yelled at Shun, "What's the big idea?"

Shun did the mistake of looking at Julie when he said, "You snooze, you lose." Before Shun could turn his attention back to the screen a descending Peach rapidly kicked Snake in the face and then hit him with a frying pan as she landed. "Nice combo, Alice." (A/N: Peach is personally my favorite SSB character =D. I was actually playing this game with Jet this morning (she had a slumber party for her birthday, so wish her happy birthday!). She kicked my butt with Luigi on Melee, though 3=)

Alice giggled, "Thanks!"

"But not good enough!" He said triumphantly as Peach accidently walked onto a land mine, planted by Snake, blowing her off the screen.

"Awww…" Alice said disappointed by her own mistake.

Shun put both of his arms behind his head as he reclined further into the couch, "Better luck next time!" Shun winked at Alice.

Alice blushed a little.

"I want a rematch!" Dan yelled as he stood up and pointed a finger at Shun.

"It's rude to point, Dan…" Alice said quietly.

"Nah, I'm too tired." Shun said with a shrug.

"Oh, comon'! It'll be fun!"

"Like that time you hit me with the stick while smashing watermelons?"

"Oh, yeah…sorry about that…"

Shun sighed, "Whatever, I'll just kick your butt as revenge."

"Alright!" Dan said as he punched his fist into the air, then quickly sat down and picked up his remote. Their mouses moved across the selection screen as they picked their players. "Really? Zelda?" Dan said with an eyebrow raised at Shun's feminine choice, though he had picked Kirby, the puffy pink guy.

"Dude, Zelda's awesome."

"Not as awesome as Kirby!" Dan picked the temple stage (from Melee stages) and the game started with both of them placed underneath the pillar shelter. Kirby started by rushing toward Zelda and using his upside-down spin attack. Zelda simply jumped over Kirby and then zapped him from her side. As Kirby was knocked back Zelda transformed into Sheik. Before Kirby could react Sheik dashed at him and attacked. While Kirby was in the air from Sheik's attack he took out his air blade and slammed it into the ground, sending a wave of air toward Sheik. Sheik was pushed back a bit but easily recovered, so she started to charge her throwing weapon. Kirby saw this posture and quickly floated to the top of the round pillar structure at the edge of the stage.

Sheik, seeing that Kirby had retreated, took the time to taunt. "Geez, stop showing off, Mr. Hotshot." Dan said as he made Kirby take out another wind blade, hoping to catch the taunting ninja. Instead the wind effect ended where the stone separated the round pillar structure and the tri-platform. Sheik came at Kirby who hovered above her then plumited toward her head as he turned into a brick. Sheik retreated by jumping down through the leveled platforms, to the bottom part of the stage. Kirby followed, ready to turn into a brick again when he reached the same level. Sheik waited for Kirby's arrival, dodging his attack as he turned into a rock. When Kirby changed back Sheik quickly grabbed his and started hitting him. "Ow, ow, ow, ow." Dan said before Sheik threw Kirby into the air, then teleported upward to hit Kirby to the left, closer to the edge of the stage. Dan then saw he wasn't going to win so he decided to purposefully fall over the cliff.

"WINNER, ZELDA!" The TV announced as the screen flashed to the results page.

"Really, Dan?" Shun said with a sigh

"Hey, ummm, let's play something else!" Dan said trying to move to another subject other than his bad playing.

"Hey guys," Alice said bringing up a new suggestion, "why don't we go to the beach again? We'll only be here for the rest of the week, we should try to enjoy what we can't get back home."

"Yeah!" Dan and Julie cheered in chorus.

Inside a room with sound-proof metal walls and no windows or door, a teenage boy in a white flowing coat and spiky blonde hair was bent over, writing something on the ground. A large circular spiral pattern painted in a dark red color was sprawled around him on the ground. The paint had a strange metallic scent to it and tinted the entire room with the smell of death. Masquerade hunched over with the dark red paint on his index and middle fingers as he made swift, long, strokes, giving the pattern a very elegant and fragile look. He would stop his painting for a moment and stand up to examine the pattern, making sure it matched exactly to the pattern in the artifacts, using his photographic memory. He must have been satisfied because he sighed contently and said, "Almost done…" He then looked up at the sky through the glass roof, "There won't be a full moon until the 20th, so I should at least try to enjoy the time I have left."

"Hey, Alice, what are you making?" Shun walked up to Alice, who was crouched down in the sand and piling a lump of sand together.

"I'm making a sandman!" Alice said with a smile.

"A sandman? Like a snowman only made of sand?"

"Yeah, exactly!" Alice said happily.

"Look, Alice, I know you miss home and all but do you really need to make a _sand_man?

"It wasn't my idea." Alice said dismissively.

Shun looked around but he and Alice were the only ones nearby, "Uh, then whose idea was it?"

One of the sandman's black eyes started to move and Hydranoid popped out, "Hey Shun!" he said over-happily.

"What the hell are you doing here Hydranoid?"

"Shun! Be nice to Hydranoid!" Alice said while putting her hands on her hips, showing her disapproval of Shun's langue.

"Master was being scary, again…"

Shun crossed his arms in mild interest, "Go on."

A wave came in and ruined the sandman, "Ahhh! NOOOOOO! NOT AGAIN! WHY FROSTY? WHY?"

"Um…frosty?" Shun asked Alice.

"I think he's referring to the 'Frosty the Snowman.' movie…"

Shun sighed, "Hydranoid, answer my question."

"Uh, well…he was in this room."

"Well, yes. If Masquerade was indoors it'd be clear that he would be in a _room_."

"Hey Hotshot! I'm not finished yet! Slow down!"

Shun sighed with impatience, "Go on."

"This is kinda creepy, there are no windows except for the skylight and the walls and floors are made of metal, as if it was a laboratory but the room is completely empty, and yet he lately has locked himself up there for multiple hours at a time, and I have no idea what he does in this metal, empty room…that's why I said he was scary…"

Shun thought about this for a moment, he had no doubt Hydranoid was telling the truth but because he's a bit naïve he probably wouldn't be able to think of the different things Masquerade _could_ be doing. Shun sighed, _This is getting us nowhere…_

"You're right, Hydranoid, that _is_ a bit creepy."

"He can be so scary sometimes." Hydranoid whined.

"Well, if you don't like then why are you with him?"

"Because Naga told me so?"

"Well, then, why do you work for Naga?"

Hydranoid got very nervous, "H-h-he said he would send me to the-the—"

"Spit it out, already."

"DOOM DIMENSION! He said if I didn't obey his every order he'd send me to my doom O.O"

"So you obey his orders and send _others_ to the doom dimension…"

"Well…yes…" Hydranoid said as he dropped his head down. Alice looked at him in sympathy.

"But it's not like he can hurt humans…right?"

"Actually, he's killed humans before."

"What?" Alice and Shun shrieked in unison.

"B-but don't tell anyone I said that!"

Alice and Shun just stared at Hydranoid and then at each other. "Shun…" Alice said quietly "…what if…what if Masquerade is working for Naga against his will?"

"Naw, that's not it." Hydranoid said. "Masquerade is always so respectful to Naga, much more than I am, he always call him 'Lord Naga' and uses such formal langue."

Shun rose an eyebrow, "Hydranoid just because someone _respects_ someone doesn't mean they like them, or vice-versa. Like for example, I like Dan, he's my best friend, but I surly don't respect him."

Alice giggled a little at this, "I do hope nothing bad happens to Masquerade…"

Shun looked at her funny, "Ummm, yeah, I guess that would be…bad."

"Yes, it would be _very_ bad Shun!" Alice waved her arms in exaggeration.

"Why would it be _very_ bad if _Masquerade_ was hurt by Naga?" Shun asked with a small hint of bitterness.

Alice was taken aback by this response, "It would be bad if _anyone_ got hurt by Naga, or forced to do something against their will!"

"Guys, you're overthinking this, I haven't heard Naga threaten Masquerade _once_, I think Masquerade does it of his own will, granted I don't know exactly way he chooses to work for Naga, either…"

"See? None of us can figure it out because he's secretly being forced to do this stuff!"

"Or maybe…" Shun trailed off thoughtfully, "or maybe there's a puzzle piece we're missing." Shun stared off into the distance for a while until he turned to Hydranoid and crouched down on the ground to ask him something, "Hydranoid…I have an important question."

"Uh…yes, Shun?"

"Who was Masquerade _before_ he became Masquerade? Because I doubt he was born with that name."

Hydranoid was silent.

Alice looked at Hydranoid worriedly, "Why aren't you saying anything, Hydranoid?"

"Because I have no idea." Hydranoid said weepily.

Shun looked at Hydranoid surprisingly, "You mean you don't even know his old _name_? What his life was life? Why he became Masquerade? _ANYTHING_?"

"Nothing…I've never even seen his face before…I only know him as Masquerade…"

"Well, this talk has been useless."

"Shun!" Alice said shocked by Shun's bluntness.

"But, I, uh…I _do_ know a place where you might be able to find this information." Hydranoid said sheepishly.

Shun swiftly picked up Hydranoid and demanded, "What? Where! Tell me Hydranoid!"

"I will once you put me down!" Hydranoid made a crying noise. Shun put Hydranoid back onto the sand only for him to be washed away by one of the incoming waves. "AHHH! HELP! BAKUGAN CAN'T SWIM!" Shun felt a sweat drop run down his cheek as he watched Masquerade's rather pathetic bakugan struggle in the water. Shun walked over and picked Hydranoid out of the water.

"You were saying?"

"Well, uh, there are a _couple_ of places in the mansion Masquerade never lets me go to…"


	11. December 6th Secrets Unshadowed

**A/N:**

kd: Hey guys! Long time no see ;D. I hope you all love this chapter…and please don't yell at me if you don't like how I made his past…-.-. Btw, I'm only revealing a _little_ bit! So there's plenty more after this, I've already thought of it all, to tell you truth ^.^. Heehee, I could spoil the very ending for you, if I wanted to…but I'm _not_, you're going to have to wait for me to write it all, and in the meanwhile you can read and review my new bakugan story 'The Other One'…please? =D

Jet: Hey! That's product placement…cross advertising…thingy.

kd: Well if Disney channel can do it, so can I. (I know, really bad joke)

Jet: So now you're going to lower yourself to Disney channel?

kd: Hmmm…good point. How'd you get in here, anyways?

Jet: *points to front door*

kd: Hmmm, I wonder how that got there…

Jet: Ummm, kd…it's a front door, all buildings have them…

kd: Well aren't _you_ the smart one…and unusually calm for today.

Jet: Yup =3

kd: Alright then…so without further ado—

Hydrie: KD DOES NOT OWN ANYTHING IN BAKUGAN!

kd: Huh? O.O, _you_ popped out of nowhere.

Hydranoid: Are you aware, kd, that you have neglected to put a disclaimer up for the past…*looks through chapters*…_nine or eight_ _chapters_?

kd: Ummm…not really…thanks?

Hydranoid: EXPLAIN YOURSELF!

kd: O.O;;…first of all _ow_ *rubs ears from Hydranoid's yelling*, and second of all: It's fanfic, you don't need a disclaimer. Everyone knows you don't own the thing. And plus all the anime characters act as if it's a pain in the ass to even _mention_ the disclaimer…so what's the point?

Hydranoid: …

Jet: It's fanfic, kd, there doesn't _need _to be a point.

kd: -.-;; *sweatdrops*

Hydranoid: You just swore =|

kd: Huh? *looks back through dialog*…oh, you're right, I _did_ say 'ass'.

Hydranoid: *covering his burning ears* I demand you raise the rating! You have swearing in your other chapters!

kd: Why don't we ask the audience ^.^;;…do you think I should raise the rating? Review or PM me about this ^.^

Jet: This must be the longest A/N in history…

kd: Alright, alright…and without further ado…I give you chapter 11! *kd hears applauds inside her mind*

Jet: Don't flatter yourself XD

* * *

"Ummm…Hydranoid?" a dark haired ninja asked a black and purple ball as they stood in front of a closed door.

"Yes?" a naïve, energetic bakugan called from Shun's shoulder.

"Are you _sure_ this is the door?" Shun asked hesitantly.

"Yup…Masquerade keeps diary in here, too." Hydranoid said matter-of-factly.

"He, _what_?" Shun asked in surprise, "I dunno, Hydranoid, he doesn't seem that kind of guy…"

"And how would _you_ know?" Hydranoid said with a little sass in his voice, which annoyed the heck out of Shun.

Shun couldn't help but to look out the window at the colored sky of evening. Where was Masquerade? What could he possibly be doing without bringing Hydranoid along? He at least needed _some_ bakugan to bring along…Shun tried to turn the knob only to find it locked. Of course, what else did he exspect.

"Alright them, let's go in! The key is under the mattress in his room." Hydranoid directed Shun.

Now Shun had morals, he wasn't going to sneak into Masquerade's house _and_ his room, though he had not yet realized that the secrets held within this closet were far more personal. Shun, not wanting to waste time, took out a pick tool from his pocket and started to pick the lock.

"Wait! You can't do that!" Hydranoid was proved wrong as they heard a _click_ and the door eerily and slowly swung inward, sending a dark invitation to the two unexpecting brawler and bakugan. "Ummm…maybe we shouldn't—"

Shun took a step inside, and by finding the light switch, lighted the room, revealing long-silent secrets into the limelight. There were file cabinets and tons of stacks of paper surrounding them. There was also a stack of…canvases?…Darkly hiding in the corners of the room. On the floor laid a plain, brown, leather bounded book with the title _Diary_ on it. The only think unusual about it was that layers and layers of chains with small locks secured the book from uninvited eyes, such as Shun's. Shun decided to pick up the diary and try to pick it open, too. After a while of struggling with the top lock he finally decided that the locks were too small for his tool and that he would have to find the real keys. _Who would want to lock up their diary like THIS? It must be a pain when ever he wants to write something in it_. "Hey, Hydranoid…you wouldn't know—"

"Where the keys are?" Hydranoid asked, finishing Shun's thought.

"Yeah…" Shun said a bit uneasily, hoping Masquerade wouldn't find out about Hydranoid's betrayal.

"No clue." Hydranoid stated honestly.

"Hey, Hydranoid? Can I ask you something?" Shun questioned curiously.

"Yeah?" Hydranoid didn't really know what Shun was thinking so he just waited for the question.

"Why are you doing this?"

Hydranoid thought about this for a while, not so sure about the answer himself, then answered, "Masquerade has hid under his mask for too long. It drives me nuts. We're supposed to be partners but he tells me nothing, he treats me like some disobedient dog that pees on the carpet. How am I just supposed to accept that he's some evil genius when I don't even know how he became who he is today. I guess…curiosity got the best of me, just as it is with you."

"Hydranoid," Shun said quietly, stunned by his honestly, "Really, I can't imagine you as someone on the…'dark side'. If you don't like Masquerade then you can just choose to leave. I'm sure someone nicer and more respectful than Masquerade would want you as their partner.

Hydranoid stayed silent.

Shun, not being able to read bakugan expressions, especially if they were in ball form, felt uncertain.

"What's that on the back?" Hydranoid pointed out.

"Huh?" Shun looked from Hydranoid back to the diary to realize that Hydranoid had spotted the faded text on the back of the diary, hidden by chains. Shun slightly moved the chains around so that he could read the text. _Where manmade nature resides._ "Where manmade nature reside?" Shun didn't know Masquerade was a _poet_.

"It might be a clue to where the diary keys are!" Hydranoid said excitedly, then fell silently as he tried to think of what it meant.

"It doesn't make sense because there is no such thing as manmade nature!" Shun said in frustration.

"Shun, all riddles are like that, sometimes Masquerade practically _speaks_ in riddles, so I'm used to it." Hydranoid said rather casually. "Think, in what instances do humans try to create nature?"

"All I can think of is a zoo…because they try to make the habitats close to nature" Shun said with a furrow of his brow.

"The keys have to be pretty close, though. Maybe something like a zoo? Maybe a farm? But the closest farm is about three miles from here, Masquerade might not keep the things he's trying to hide so far away." Hydranoid tried to reason it out.

Shun shrugged, "Who knows, he _does_ have the power to teleport wherever he wants, whenever he wants. Who's to say his key isn't in China somewhere?" Shun exaggerated.

"Shun…would you travel across the world just to open your own diary?" Hydranoid asked logically.

"I guess not, but if Masquerade went through the trouble of chaining this multiple times, how do we know he hasn't decided to go _all the way_." Shun felt irritated by their lack of progress.

"Oh I got it!" Hydranoid jumped up and down in excitement.

"What is it?" Shun asked slightly irritated by Hydranoid's enthusiasm.

"I was thinking of all the different locations around the mansion and I realized…the garden!" Hydranoid almost chirped in glee.

"That…makes sense." Shun sounded surprise by Hydranoid's sudden logic.

"Well, then, let's go!"

* * *

Shun had followed the pebble path, not expecting what he was next. Near the end of the path there was a rather large ivy-covered archway leading into a garden…except that it wasn't really garden. Shun could tell that once, maybe a long time ago, that this was a breath-taking garden…now it seemed as if its last breath had been taken away. The manmade nature was slowly being reclaimed by the ground from which it once grew. Dark, sometimes dead, plants clinged to what was left of the once beautiful garden. The glow from the setting sun painted the haunting, dead garden scenery in a surprisingly bright orange that made it look like it was a place on some other planet. Shun felt like he had just entered a different world. As he walked around he noticed that a few flowers were able to survive to pop out between the ivy and other overgrown or withered plants.

"Hydranoid…" Shun quietly called out to Hydranoid in amazement.

"Yeah, Shun?" Hydranoid asked, curious of Shun's tone.

"What…happened to this place?" an eerie tone crept into Shun's voice as he started to walk around the garden, trying to find anything unusual, well, unusual for a long dead garden.

"Well…I'm guessing no one tries to take care of the garden anymore…" Hydranoid pointed out the obvious.

Shun sighed, he noticed a realistic statue in the center of the garden. The statue was of a pearly white woman, covered in ivy, who held a pot, tilted so that the liquid the pot contained gracefully flowed down to her bare feet, the other hand was outstretched, as if begging for Shun's assistance, but raised slightly above Shun's head, as if she was asking god for help instead of Shun. She was dressed in loose robes and had flowing hair, but the thing that Shun paid attention to was the shining necklace around her neck. Shun walked up closer and saw that a small and highly decorated key was hanging from this necklace-chain. Shun quickly detached the chain and raised the key in the air in a silent signal of triumph.

"Ummm…but there's still two more keys." Hydranoid coughed, hating to be the bearer of bad news.

"…" Shun lowered the key, along with his head, in slight frustration.

"Ah! But! Ummm, I'm sure we'll quickly find the other keys! We should try to find another clue!" Hydranoid babbled quickly. trying to raise the high spirits of Shun that he had just lowered.

Shun glanced around until the metallic glint cause the orange light of the escaping sun. Shun kneeled down to see the golden label on the statue's base, pushing away the covering ivy. The caption said 'by Riven Macbeth' but Shun was more interested in the scratched letters below the official caption, "_Where sky meets earth_." Shun read the sentence scratched.

"Ummm…well there _is_ another strange statue at the top of a really tall hill…" Hydranoid offered.

Shun thought it was good enough and followed Hydranoid's directions.

They finally reached the top of the ridiculously tall hill, the sun slightly peeked over the top like a watchful eye. Another statue awaited them at the top. It was the same style of statue, looking like a replica of Greek and Roman statues…only clothed. This time it was of a man. He sat on top of a bolder. He had a hand rested on one of his bent knees and his arm outreached to the direction of the house, slightly raised upward. Shun quickly took the key from around his neck and crouched down to read the next clue, he had no time to play one of Masquerade's games.

"_Where the statues point is where you may feel on top of the world_." Shun didn't get it, they were already on a really tall hill, what other place could there be?

"I…don't get it." Hydranoid had finally run out of his usefulness.

Shun then thought about where the statues were pointing. He then realized that both statues pointed to his house…but also more toward the sky…which meant…_the roof! _"Let's go, Hydranoid!" Shun almost broke his usual calm composure in excitement.

They ran to the house and up staircases to _finally_ make it to the roof. When Shun reached the top he stood still for a while to catch his breath, and enjoy the sunset, making everything now glow in a light gold. Shun didn't have to look around much to see the third key, hanging from the TV antenna, glittering in the beautiful light. He snatched up the key with a raising fist in victory.

Soon the unusual duo had made their way down back to the file closet. With shaking hands Shun unlocked and brushed aside all of the chains, leaving a harmless, plain, old looking diary.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Open it!" Hydranoid was literally bouncing up and down on Shun's shoulder.

Shun, almost hesitantly, slowly started to open the diary to the very first page. Not expecting when Masquerade had in store for them.

* * *

*A small piece of paper was taped on the other side of the cover of the brown leather bond diary* If you are reading this…then I am most likely dead. If you are reading this and I'm _not_ dead…then you shall be dead soon. And yes, this is a true threat, for the information in here has the ability to kill me…_and_ you. Whoever _you_ are, that is.

*Now to the first page*

Well then, if you are so confident about the security of your life, then go right ahead. When I die I'll need _someone_ to read this so that maybe, just maybe, they'll be able to fix _the big pest problem_ on earth and Vestroia. Now then, I might as well start off explaining my situation before getting into the details. But seriously…your life will be a lot happier and safer if you stop here…oh well, here goes nothing. Don't say I didn't warn you…

You will not find any diaries earlier than this. I've always found diaries needless since I have a perfect photographic memory. I could remember almost anything that happened to me by replaying it in my head, like in a film. If you asked me where I went on a certain date, I could tell you that I might've went to the park, and because I would be seeing the film, I would be able to tell you what color the benches and swings were. Or, by judging the position of the sun, I could tell you exactly what time I was at the park or what the people looked like, I would remember their faces exactly. So a diary didn't really seem like something I would benefit from. It's only now that I have something really important to say.

I saw the cards fall to the earth a day before it actually happened. I was in the garden, leaning against the statue I had made for it. I don't really remember exactly what I was thinking, it was something about my parents being unfair bastards again. All of a sudden I saw a vision where cards fell from the sky, from the grey clouds that hid the brilliant sun. I was confused because it was currently sunny in the garden. And I'm not the kind of person to imagine such illogical things as some stupid card game cards to fall from the _sky_. I then saw a brunette looking up at the sky in utter amazement. He held out his hand as a card slowly floated down. The card landed then laid down onto his hand. A small red and yellow ball emerged from the card and the brunette smiled at it. _What the hell?_ Was all I could think. I didn't know this person nor was it even possible for clouds to rain cards and not water. I tried to comfort myself by making up irrational theories. Maybe I overdosed on some medication or something, even though I wasn't medicated nor had taken any over-the-counter pills within the last few months.

Maybe it was actually a clip of a movie I had seen when I was younger, though I would have remembered the title of the movie if that was the case. The last thing I wanted to think of was that I was going crazy, though right now that seemed like the most logical answer.

I then saw my cousin, Elisa, run over. We weren't really cousins, more like siblings, yet we weren't even related. To explain this: I was adopted by a couple who couldn't have children but my mom had one sister who had a daughter. And this was Elisa, my parents were her god-parents so when my aunt and uncle both died in a car crash when she was only five years old. We were only a month apart, I was also five when she moved in with us, so we got along…sorta. "Riven," she called my name as she reached the garden's statue, "Why are you sitting here all by yourself, being anti-social?"

I rolled by eyes, "Because I _am_ anti-social."

"Well…I can't disagree with _that_." Elisa giggled.

I sighed at her cheerfulness. I tried to stay away from most people, to be completely honest I really don't like humans. I didn't like them then and I don't like them now. Other people always tried to get things from you. They hardly even come up to you in just good intentions. They would say they wanted to be friends with you just to ask for your autograph later and never speak to you again. Other times they just do so that they'd be able to brag to others that they met you or that they were your friend…when they were not. Of course, I'm not expecting anyone's empathy as this may only happen to a child prodigy, huh, lucky me.

Elisa seemed different though. I still remember the time when we first met. I had decided to paint the park…exactly the way it was. After all, I was famous for realistic painting that looked almost like a photograph because of its exactness. Elisa peered through the small crack she had opened in the door. I didn't stop painting as I heard the whinny creek of the old door of the Victorian style mansion. "Come in." I offered stoically to my unexpected guest.

The continuous creaking signaled that the door slowly and fully opened. I heard her gasp so I turned around to see her reaction. Her eyes were wide open from the quality of the painting. I smirked smugly, "Just don't distract me from my art." I said with a snobbish tone, as if I was her superior. Back then I thought I was better than everyone else…I still think that way.

"What…what is that?" she asked, amazement still on her face.

I sighed realizing she actually wanted to _converse_. I stepped down from the stool I was using to reach the canvas. Did I mention we were both five at this time? "It's a painting of exactly how my favorite park looks like."

Elisa walked closer and studied the half-finished painting, "Then it's not art." she stated bluntly.

"Wait…_what_?" I questioned in surprise. I actually got very annoyed by this comment. Who was she to just walk into my life and criticize my painting skills? Everyone thought I was good, darn it! I was a child prodigy!

"I meant…how do you feel about the park?" Elisa asked, as if her question was completely normal and had to do with art.

"I don't know, I just decided to paint it." I said with an annoyed shrug.

"Yes, you can paint…but you can't paint art. Art shows how someone feels about something." Elisa chuckled a bit.

"It does? How?" I was totally clueless of this.

"It shows how someone sees something and uses symbolism to convey a feeling or message." Elisa spoke almost robotically, as if reading it out of a textbook, yet she understood it.

I rolled my eyes, "Alright then, give me an example."

Elisa thought about it for a moment, "OK, so if you decided to paint a person you thought was evil…you might paints her in tones and shades of red."

"But that doesn't make sense because that person isn't _actually_ in shades and tones of red, or is she?" I pointed out, as if I knew everything and I was always right.

"But art doesn't _have_ to make sense, and it usually doesn't if you take everything so freaking _literally_." Elisa growled with a hint of annoyence.

I was stunned. What the hell was she talking about and getting on my case for? My parent said anything I painted was art and would be apreaciated by anyone who saw it. It was only till later that I realized that she was right, all of the paintings before had been a shallow remeberance of places without any feeling.

Anyways, back to the other scene I was trying to describe. Elisa had just laughed when I said I was antisoical. She took it light heartedly in the past but her face has dulled into seriousness. I looked up at her in curiosity of her expression change.

"You know…" now her face almost seemed sad, "you just can't stay antisocial _forever_…"

"…what do you mean by that?" I asked in a mixture of annoyence and confusion.

"Well, we won't be living in the same house together forever. And you view me as your only friend, don't you?" Elisa pondered, refusing to just _get to the point_.

"Yeah? And?" I pretended to pay her little attention, as if I'd stop listening if she didn't stop beating around the bush, Of course, that would never happen, I'm always interested in what Elisa has to say.

"What will you do when we grow up and part our own ways? You'll be all alone. You need to learn to trust more people, sometimes I don't even think you trust _me_." Elisa placed her hands on her hips.

I looked at her darkly, "Maybe I _want_ to be all alone, that's when I'm happiest."

Elisa raised an eyebrow at my response and replied scarcastically, "Oh, well, excuse me Mr. 'I vant to be alone'," Elisa imitated that line from the movie _Grand Hotel_, "If your so happy without anyone around, I'll just leave, then." Elisa turned her back and started walking away.

I got onto my feet, I didn't want her to leave while she was angry at me (I wouldn't hear the end of her complaints about my antisocialness), "Wait! Elisa!"

She turned around, hand on hip, waiting to hear what I was going to say, "Yeah?"

"There was _one_ thing I wanted to ask you about. But I'm only going to tell you this because I actually _do_ trust you." I tried to think of a way to both prove my trust _and_ get that vision off of my chest.

"Yeah?"

"Alright here it goes…" I took in a large breath of air, "…do you think it's possible for cards to fall from the sky?"

Elisa's blank expression matched her silent untill her compossure broke with the silence in a histerical laugh, "Oh comon' Riven! _Cards_? From the _sky_? AHAHA! Where the hell did you get this load of crap? Have you been watching that weird TV show where they talk about the end of the world? You _know_ they only make those shows to freak people out."

I knew she wouldn't listen…no one does, "Yeah, you're right, I'm just being paranoid. It was just a stupid daydream."

Elisa shrugged, "Alright, but that's not like you, Riven. Are you feeling ok?"

I turned my head away from her, not wanting to continue this conversation, "I'm _fine_."

Elisa sighed, "If you say so…"

And we both walked back to the house together. Little did I know that what I saw would change my life, and not just mine, either…

* * *

"Hey Alice!" a crude voice called out to the unexpecting red-head.

Alice looked around her room at the beach house, only to jump at the sight of a certein blonde perched on the window sill of the window she opened a while ago. "M…Masquerade?"

"That's my name, don't wear it out." Masky bluntly and rudly replied.

"W-what," Alice looked around to see if any of the brawlers had noticed this unwelcomed visitor, the coast was clear, "What are you doing here?"

"Wow you seem a bit stressed out…maybe this isn't the best time…" Masquerade started to take out his DT (dimensional transporter) but Alice grabed the hand holding the card.

"Wait, no! This is a perfect time just…what exactly is it that you want?" Alice said with uncerteincy.

"I was just wondering…where would you like to go?" Masquerade offered without explaining.

"Huh?" Alice grunted in confusion, what exactly was Masquerade asking her?

"You know, I have the DT so we could go anywhere you wanted, even outside the country. Of course, you're the lady, so where do you want to go?" Masquerade said nonchalantly with a shrug at the end.

Was…was Masquerade asking her out on a…_date_? Alice crossed her arms behind her back so that Masquerade wouldn't see when she pinched herself.

Masquerade crossed his arms over his front, "I'm waiting." he reminded her, though he was not waiting patiently.

"Oh, um, I want to…want to…go to an amusement park!" Alice said as her face lit up at the last word she said.

_Oh gawd,_ "Ummm, an amusement park? Really?" Masquerade asked an unpleasant tone.

Alice's once lit up face instantly dulled from Masquerade's reaction, "You said anywhere I wanted…" Alice tried out her best puppy eyes on Masquerade.

_Damn, those are good puppy eyes_, "Yes, I _did_ say where ever you wanted but…do you _really_ want to go to an amusement park?"

"Yes!" Alice put her hands together in a pleading motion.

"You know, it's, like, in the middle of winter. How the heck are going to find an amusement park?" Masquerade tried to slyly get himself out of it.

"We're in Florida, aren't we? I'm sure there are some year-round amusement parks down here!"

"Ummm…is that your final answer?" Masquerade said, sounding more like a game show host than a guy taking a girl out on their first date.

"Yes."

"…are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes! Are we going or not?" Alice actually lost patience.

Masquerade grabbed her wrist and took out the DT, "Alright…let's go."


	12. Deceber 7th THE DAIRY, I mean, DIARY!

**A/N:**

kd: Hey guys! Sorry for being gone for so long.

Jet: _I'll_ say!

kd: What the? Jet, you know me in real life so you could basically see me whenever you wanted!

Jet: Yeah, but, I'm sticking up for all the readers that have been waiting for your lazy ass to update!

kd: I'm sorry readers T.T...

Jet: You better be!

kd: It's just that...I was iffy about whether or not to even post this chapter...I had actually written it months ago. It's just that...I kinda feel bad about what I put Masky through. But I only did it because, unlike bakugan, I'll try to explain Maquerade's evilness.

Jet: It made me cry T.T

kd: Yeah, so don't feel bad if you cry, too. Just remeber that Jet is a tough cookie but crumbled, too. XD, Anyways, here's chapter 12!

* * *

I'm not much of a writer…so forgive me if I just move from one memory to the other. I guess I kinda have to start from the beginning because I have no diaries earlier than this.

I never really found any use for a diary, anyways, because I have a photographic memory. I could look and review earlier parts of my life and it would be like watching a very detailed video inside my head. So I could easily remember anything that was useful or significant in my life…clearly.

Ever since I was little I was hardly ever normal. When I was very young, six and younger, my parents would get horribly frustrated with me. When I was smaller, I wouldn't speak a word to them. Not one. It wasn't that I _couldn't_ speak. I spoke to myself all the time. I just didn't _want_ to speak to them. To me they were strangers since I insisted on staying in my own world. I didn't like strangers.

They would yell at me a lot and sometimes my mom would sometimes cry, "Why aren't you saying anything? Don't you love me?" I would just look at her for a long time but then turn my attention to whatever I was creating. The fact was…I _didn't_ love them. I was a little monster who insisted on living in my own world. I was a little monster who didn't even love my own parents.

(Hydranoid shivered.)

(Shun rolled his eyes at Hydranoid and continued reading the diary aloud.)

Sometimes they would try to make me talk by saying, "Now, Riven, you're not getting dinner unless you _ask_ for it, like a normal person." But, the thing was, I _wasn't_ a normal person. I never was and I never will be. They ended up starving me for days because I refused to talk to them. They would then end up feeding me because they were afraid of being charged with abuse. Everything they did was forceful until they gave in.

Sooner or later, they couldn't figure it out. They even brought over a doctor to see me. The only reason they didn't bring the doctor any time sooner was because they didn't have the money for it. They probably _still _didn't have the money for it. We weren't that wealthy…ok, we were the _opposite_ of wealthy. I was quite surprised when the doctor walked in full uniform, like one of the shows the neighbor liked to watch (we didn't have a TV ourselves, dad was once complaining about it being too expensive to mom). I remember watching people in their scrubs running around in big buildings while they shouted at people who were laid on beds with wheels. I never knew what they were saying because I couldn't _hear_ the TV all the way from the neighbor's house, I could only watch it through the window.

I started to feel scared about this stranger. Was he going to put me on a bed on wheels and roll me into a room with big, bright lights as they cut me open with knives, like on the TV? I quickly abandoned my toys and hid behind the beat-up, dirty arm-chair, cautiously one eye peering over. He crouched down and folded and unfolded his hand in a beckoning movement. He wanted me to get closer. I narrowed my eyes at the doctor, I didn't trust him. Then again, I didn't trust anyone. But then I realized that, if I played along, he could be my entertainment, he could be my _toy_. Even if it was only for a few moments before he went away, he would much more fun than my broken toys.

* * *

It was a bright day at the amusement park and it was crowded with people…something Masquerade didn't seem happy about it. I had to keep pulling him by his arm to see the different attractions. We went on big rollercoasters where lots of people screamed…but Masquerade just kept silent the entire ride, not opening his mouth once, not even cracking a small smile. It defiantly made the roller coaster picture rather creepy looking. I was a little taken aback by his stoic nature at an _amusement park_. But hey, what else is new?

We went to one of the food stalls to get icecream and sat down on one of the benches. We had already been at the park for an hour but had not once uttered a word to each other.

"Ummm…" I tried to search my brain for conversation starters, "Well, thanks for paying for everything, including the icecream!"

Masquerade shrugged, "I have too much money anyways…" he kept his eyes on his icecream…well, I didn't actually know where he was looking because of his mask but his head was turned in that direction. A small voice in my head said _You WISH he was looking at you!_

I looked at him with a raised eyebrow in response to his nonchalant statement. How can someone have too much money? Well, Masquerade lived in a mansion so I guess he really _was_ loaded. My mind wondered. Not _only_ was he loaded he was also pretty hot, _really_ interesting and sometimes had a dark sense of humor. I tried imagining what his entire face looked like.

Masquerade finally turned his head toward me, he opened his mouth and closed it, as if debating whether or not to say what was on his mind.

That just made me want to know what he was thinking even more, "What is it?"

"Your icecream's melting…" he said blankly, trying, but failing, to suppress a smirk.

I looked at my hand, with a blush now on my face, and wiped the sticky treat off my hand with a napkin. _Dumbass…_the voice in my head scolded me. My face reddened.

"I don't think your icecream would be melting like that if your face wasn't so red." He made the comment in a detached way but I knew he was making fun of me.

I felt my face get even hotter at his comment. Couldn't I do anything right? I let my eyes wander to the ground. It sometimes seemed that Masquerade enjoyed my company just for my immediate reactions…as if he lived off of human emotion, which was strange because at first glance you would think he _had_ no emotions.

I felt a finger poke at my hot cheek. I gave Masquerade an irritated look.

He turned his body away from me. I could see his back shaking. I thought something might've been wrong with him so I tried to reach my hand toward him but stopped when I heard his burst into laughter.

Well, I'm glad _he_ was enjoying this moment because I couldn't remember any time I might have been more embarrassed. Little did I know that my masked friend had more surprises in store for me.

* * *

My mom worked part-time at a nursery and would bring me broken toys from there. It was because we didn't have enough money for real toys and she didn't want to lose her job by stealing the good toys. Little did she know…I quickly learned how to fix the toys. When my parents weren't home, which was often, I would take my father's mini repair-kit they kept in a low cabinet in the kitchen. I would always giggle at the warning that said, "Keep out of reach of children." Fixing my own toys gave me such great satisfaction. It felt good that I could take seemingly useless things and make them better. But I would rarely play with the toys after I fixed them, fixing them was the only fun and challenging part.

I came out from behind the arm-chair and walked up to the doctor and sat down in front of him. I was ready for the show. He didn't really do anything that was extreme. I _did_ feel uncomfortable when he looked inside my ear with that device-thingy. And stuck a wooden stick onto my tongue. So a couple of things felt like an invasion of privacy, but I put up with it.

I could tell my parents were very surprised by me letting a complete stranger touch me. Maybe I was more comfortable with it because I recognized the doctor figure from the TV shows. The neighbor _really_ liked those kinds of shows. They were always shown as the hero, even if they cut people open with knives, and even if they made people cry over patients when their machine started to show a straight line instead of hills and valleys.

The doctor stood up when he was done and pocketed his equipment. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow as if to say, '_That's all?_'

"Well…what's wrong with him?" my dad asked in a worried tone, as if there _was_ something wrong with me.

"Is there anything we can do?" my mother's tone matched my father's as they drilled the doctor with questions.

"Well…I don't really think there's anything wrong with him…" the doctor scratched the back of his head, quite confused onto why he had to make a house-call to a perfectly healthy child.

"He won't speak, not a word!" Mother burst out.

The doctor raised an eyebrow toward the slightly hysterical woman. "Then maybe you should have taken him to a behavior specialist. Or have told me the problem sooner, because otherwise, he has a clean bill of health."

My father looked irritated, "Well, what do you think is wrong with him _behavioral_ wise? You're already here so we would appreciate it if you could give us a bit of a hint."

The doctor scratched his head again, "You haven't heard him talk? Not once? Hmmm…well, his hearing and reaction instincts are actually above average, so it's not to do with his hearing. It could be a language disorder. If it was that extreme of a case of Aphasia that he couldn't talk, then he wouldn't be able to read or write. Yet you have told me that, even though he hasn't received any preschool education and is only at the age of four, he can write out complete, grammatically correct sentences. So that is not it. It might be an Expressive Language Disorder, in which intelligence is normal but just speaking skills is remarkably underdeveloped. Yet I don't think your child has 'normal' intelligence, either. (A/N: btw, these are all real disorders.) And there is also autism that prevents children from speaking at the appropriate age. But autism is a disorder in which the one affected has trouble comprehending emotion, which I don't think is that case with Riven."

My head started to swirl around with all the new, longer words I had never heard before, I struggled to completely understand what he was saying, "He probably is simply a mute. One becomes mute by either having damaged or underdeveloped voice organs or a traumatizing experience, something to do with physiological damage. I don't think it has to do with his voice but I can't really, considering the things you've told me, think of an experience enough to cause Riven to become mute."

The doctor sighed, "I apologize, this isn't my expertise. Everyone is an individual when it comes to different disorders. There isn't anything wrong with your son, no parent must think of it like that, Riven is just different." I appreciated how the doctor didn't think there was anything wrong with me, unlike my parents. "I could try to mail you something that might help if you're not going bring him to a specialist."

My parents started to thank him, but I wasn't going to let him leave without having the last word. I had sat perfectly still throughout the entire appointment, he didn't even bring a lollipop like doctors are supposed to, and I was going to have my fun. Still sitting cross-legged on the floor I crossed my arms and turned my head with my nose up, "Humph. You call yourself a doctor yet you can't fix one child." I made sure to put as much brattiness in my voice as I could. I turned my head to look at the doctor's reaction, which was not what I expected. He looked at with some sort of _respect_ or even…_admiration_. I couldn't really understand why he felt this why, but it only made me like him more. Funny how this complete stranger came in and managed to make me talk to him and then _like_ him. It was something my parents never managed to do themselves.

I looked past the doctor to see my parents' reactions. They were abashed, their faces as white as ghosts. It was the first thing they have ever heard me speak and it was an insult directed toward the one who was supposed to be helping me. A smile crossed over my face, I wanted to laugh right in their faces but I restrained myself. The doctor, once again, came up and kneeled in front of me. He didn't punish me for being different, like my parents would. He didn't accuse me of being a monster who didn't love my parents, like my parents would, either. He took out his hand and patted my head, as if I was just any other kid, "You don't require fixing, Riven." I couldn't help but beam up at him. With that he stood up and made an exit through the front door. I hurried past my parents to the chair that had it's back to the window. I climbed it and watched through the window as the doctor walked down our driveway and up the curb to where his small car was. I still remember that his car with white, like his uniform coat. He looked back and waved as he was about to get in his car. I was about to wave back but his car was already driving away. I watched until the car turned a corner and was out of sight.

I looked behind me and, from the chair, I watched my parents hurry this way and that. I looked at the clock, it was about time that they would go do their jobs now. I was happiest when they went to work. They would leave me completely alone inside the house. Now I spent most of my time alone. When they left they locked the doors and all the windows so I'd stay put, they couldn't afford a babysitter for the entire day, nor could they afford to lose one of their jobs. They left at 7 o'clock and came back around 9:30 P.M. Of course, until then I had the run of the house. There were lots of weird things I did to keep myself entertained. Like take apart appliances only to put them back together by following the picture in my mind of how it was supposed to look on the inside.

My parents were extra hurried this morning, as if they wanted to go to work and forget about what happened. Without even so much of a glance toward me they left through the door. Shortly after I heard the clicks of the door being locked. I ran inside their bedroom and sat down in my favorite corner. I started laughing my socks off. They had looked so silly when I actually _said_ something. If all it took was one sentence for my parents to react like that then I should speak more often. It was humor, I had a sense of humor, but it was cruel, sick humor, even at that age I understood that.

* * *

We had finished our icecream and were silently sitting on the bench. I couldn't think of what to do next. We had already done most of the attractions but I couldn't tell which ones Masquerade liked, he always refused to smile on the rides, for some reason. Of course, I could always ask him but I was waiting for him to suggest something. I looked over to where he was sitting. He seemed quite comfortable. He was leaning back with his hands tucked underneath his head as he stared up into the sky. He didn't look bored, just deep in thought.

It then struck me how solitary or quiet Masquerade could be. It was so strange. Sometimes he could walk into a room and command everyone's attention without using a single word, like he did at the Christmas party. Other times he could blend into the background, pass everyone's attention, act as if he wasn't even there. If Masquerade appeared somewhere, and wanted people's attention, he would get _everyone's_ attention. But if he suddenly disappeared people might not even notice for at least a couple of months.

Well, Masquerade had passed the attention of most people…_most_ people…

A red and yellow was thrown in Masquerade's direction, but before it could reach his mask he caught it between two fingers, without so much a glace toward the person who threw it at him.

"Hey! Give him back!" a small boy approached Masquerade.

"Oh? You want it back? I thought you were giving him to me as a gift but were too impatient to hand it to me." Masquerade had an evil smirk on his face.

The boy had tears in his eyes, "I-I-I'm sorry I threw him at you just…p-please don't send him to h-his d-d-d-doom…" he was obviously choking up.

I couldn't help but feel pity toward this small child. Then I thought…why am I dating Masquerade, again? He was the enemy of the brawlers and send bakugan to their ultimate doom for the sake of the most evil bakugan known to man…Naga. But, then again, Masquerade was loaded, hot, and it was never boring to be in his presence. Wait a minute…those pros and cons didn't weigh out exactly…oh, well.

To my surprise, Masquerade actually handed the boy his bakugan back. I stared at him.

He sighed and said, "I didn't come here for brawling."

I wanted him to finish that sentence with, _I came here for you_. It was silly, I know, because why else would a villain go to a sunny theme park? Of course, I wanted to hear him say it, anyways. It's like how women always want to hear that they're loved, even if they know it's true, they just want to hear it said.

The bakugan popped up in his partner's hand. Masquerade must've recognized him because he said, "Ah, Saber, long time, no see."

The bakugan looked taken aback, "Ummm…I don't think we've personally met."

"All you pyrus bakugan are same. So eager to rush into action without realizing the consequences to those actions. I would hate to see what happened to your friends happen to you. You shouldn't be so keen on interfering with Naga after what happened last time…"

If a bakugan could shutter in ball-form, this one defiantly did, "Wh-who are you? H-h-how do you know about this?"

Another grin spread across Masquerade's face, "Let's just say the stars told me."

Saber told his owner that he was tired of talking and that it was a stupid idea to irritate him.

I had no idea what they were talking about and I decided I didn't really _want_ to know what they were talking about. I had never seen a bakugan so scared in my life. Did Masquerade know a lot of secrets about different bakugan? And if he did, was it Naga who tells him these things? It hit me hardest then…that I was dating a villain.

* * *

You may be asking, at this time, why I disliked my parents so. The fact was…I understood they weren't my real parents. Sure, I didn't understand the whole process of 'adoption' but I understood they were trying to be my parents even though they weren't. I, at the time, was four, I was with my real mom until I was three. The memory of her still stuck up in my mind at that time. Back then I could still remember clearly what she looked like. How she always looked at me with that beautiful, sad smile of hers. It was as if she knew that even if she loved me, all the love in the world wouldn't allow her to keep me forever. I could always spend time with her, she was _always_ home, unlike my new parents. She worked at home, I had memories of her sitting at her laptop and rubbing her temples in stress.

She would work on her laptop a lot, though, so I had to learn to play by myself, but at least she was _there_. She would pat my head and give me a big, hopeful smile and say, "Just you wait, Riven, once I'm finished with the program, we can live in a big house together and we'll never be hungry. It'll just be you and me! And no one will be able to change it." I didn't really understand what a program was but it sounded important. The thought of it always made me smile. Just me and my mother. But behind her smile I could notice a hint of sadness and sense of doom. Was it just a fantasy? Would our happiness at some point end? I didn't want to think of those things, so I didn't. But one day in particular brought all the thoughts back into my head. My mom was crying over the laptop she worked on.

"Mommy, why are you crying?" I asked in a curious and hurt voice as I tugged her skirt.

She suddenly looked up as she heard the wound in my voice, "N-nothing, honey! Sometimes…just sometimes it's hard…and women need time to cry."

"Why just women?" I asked.

My mom laughed and picked me up and put me on her lap, "Well…that's kind of generalizing people…so I don't think I should teach you that." She light-heartedly laughed again and wrapped her arms around me as I stared at her computer screen. My head swirled with all the ones and zeros. I didn't understand any of it, but it must have been important and meant something…

I looked around the apartment and tried to imagine it being the inside of a big house my mom was talking about. I smiled at the thought. Though I really didn't care about where we lived I just liked living with my mom. But instantly visions of nice hotel rooms, from travel brochures my mom looked at online, with palm trees and sunsets poking in through the windows and plump beds and flat screen TV's flooded my mind. Would we live somewhere nice like that if my mom finally finished this 'program'? I would often think about it, about escaping our run-down, one-bedroom apartment and moving into a fancy, big house, like my mom said we would. I would also talk to her a lot about what our new house would look like and we would look up images online together and point to all the houses we liked.

There were pretty white houses with white picket fences and flower beds snuggled up to the bottom of the house. There were also beige beach houses that glowed golden in the sunset light. There were small, cute houses, and grand, intimidating houses. I learned a lot of architecture terms that would make anyone impressed to hear from a three-year-old.

Yet, as I feared, our happiness did not last. My mother put on a raincoat, it was pouring cats and dogs outside. I took one last glance outside the window. I saw the smoke rising out of the chimney of the grey factory, the dark grey smoke rose into the dark, grey sky. Bright colored cars zipped down on the road below, people on the sidewalk with umbrellas over their heads hurried to get out of the rain. My mother, now in her raincoat, turned to me, "Riven, we need to go."

I turned my attention back to her, "But where are we going?" I saw that her face was as grim as the weather outside.

She took my hand and pried me from the window, "We're going to meet some friends of mine." She tried to give me a smile to reassure me but…it was not a smile of hope, there was something going on I couldn't comprehend. I started to feel nervous, I had never been outside before, and I didn't really feel like going when mother was acting strange like this. This small apartment was my whole world, and I didn't like the fact that my whole world was about to change.

She hurried me through the crowd of strangers. I looked up at their dark faces and grim expressions. The world wasn't the bright and happy place portrayed by the photos I saw on the internets. The houses weren't bright white buildings with big lawns and cheerful flower beds or tan beach houses painted golden by breathtaking sunsets. It felt like a stone in my stomach was dragging it down. A sense of dread fell over me that I couldn't explain. What was happening?

We later reached an empty street. A couple draped in dark trench coats twenty feet down the road waved to us through the heavy rain. My mother put her hands on both of my shoulders then turned me around to face her as she kneeled down to look me in the face, "Riven…I'm sorry."

I was struck speechless by this sudden apology. What was she sorry for?

She moved her hands from my shoulders to tenderly place them on my cheeks, "I'm sorry…I couldn't finish the program in time. Even when I tried to fool myself, I knew I would never be able to complete such a complex program in time, even if I tried my hardest. I'm afraid…I can no longer keep you by my side, we have run out of time."

I marveled at her face. She had the most painfully beautiful and mournful smile that I had ever seen someone produce. I didn't want the warmth for her hands to leave my small face. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Instead I wrapped my hands on her wrists, as if my small fists and weak grip would keep her from leaving. She did a good job if keeping her hoodie up as her face was dry, excluding the two, fat droplets of water that ran from the outer corners of her eyes to the middles of her cheeks where they stayed next to her magnificently hopeless smile, a smile that was so empty yet full at the same time. My face felt wet, too, but I can't remember if it was from the water from the sky or the water from my eyes. I wanted to stay like that for eternity. If I had to stand in the rain forever, as long as she was with me, I would still be one of the happiest children in the world.

My mother, after a long moment that seemed to last an eternity yet only a split second at the same time, stood up. "I hope someday…you may be able to forgive you for this. If I could keep you, I would." I tried to reach up at her, I tried to grab at her skirt, but she just backed away and slowly shook her head, a ghastly expression took over her once-gentle face as she dropped her forced smile. She turned and ran, without looking back. I tried to run after her but two strong hands grabbed my small, flailing arms. I tried to struggle but as I lost sight of my mother through the thick rain my limbs went limp with despair. I was carried away to my new home to live with the people in scary trench coats.

* * *

"Oh come on! There had to be _one_ ride you liked!" I flailed my arms in frustration. Really, I knew this guy's a villain but does he really have to be such a killjoy all the time?

"I'm not really into theme parks, they're always crowded and all the rides do is throw you around." He complained.

"Well, yeah, that's kind of the point of the rides." I muttered matter-of-factly.

"So, in the end, there really _is_ no point in amusement parks." Masquerade sighed. I hated how he was acting like he was just here to waste time.

"If you find that you have something better to do, you, by all means, can leave." I growled with annoyance clear in my voice.

Masquerade's mouth parted slightly in surprise, "I came here because you wanted it and I'll leave if you want it." He said it as stoically as ever. He started to get up.

"Wait!" I grabbed his arm.

"What?" he grumbled toward me.

"Ummm…let's go on the Ferris wheel!" If Masquerade didn't like the other thrill rides maybe he would like the Ferris wheel?

He grunted as if to say, 'Do I _have_ to?'

I lowered my eyes at him and gave him a death glare for all I was worth. I couldn't really tell whether it affected or not so I muttered, "Yes, you _have_ to."


	13. In the Past: Trapped in a Broken World

**A/N:**

kd: Hey guys! Sorry again for the wait! Remember that I love you all!

Masquerade: Yeah, right!

kd: ...

Hydranoid: ...

Masquerade: ...

kd: Just kidding! I really do love you guys! =D

*Masquerade coughs*

kd: _Anyways_...I was, yet again, hesitant to post this chapter because, yet again, Masquerade is abused...

Masquerade: Yay me...

kd: If you cried last chapter, you'll be bailing out tears in this one...I cried while writing it O.o...

Masquerade: That's because you're kinda emo...

kd: ..._Anyways_, I decided to put something 'a little out there' in this story. So if you're wondering if there are any plot holes, there won't be. Because I took such a long break, I was able to think up the entire plot for this story and possible sequals.

So it's not a problem of creativity, it's just the process of getting it on paper. I also realize that the title is now misleading and that this entire story has changed from a pure-comedy Xmas story with the brawlers to a full-blown drama and tragidy that resembles that really old soap opera by grandma watches...only a whole lot more epic...

Without further ado...I present to you chapter 13!

* * *

Those were all my memories of my mother and they started piling on me as I sat in that corner in my new parents' bedroom. Why was I starting to remember all this at this time? It was because of the doctor. No one had smiled at me like that since my mom left me. He thought I was completely normal and good even _after_ he heard my parents tell him about me not speaking. I knew my mother would have loved me whether I talked to her or not. They were both good people who knew how to smile. The quick raising of my chest from laughing at my new parents soon turned into heaves of crying. I cried out for my mother. I'm not ashamed to admit it, either since I was only four. It had already been about a year since I was adopted by the Macbeths. I was used to being alone…but I was _not_ used to being anywhere my mother wasn't. My mother would sleep a lot because she worked a lot. And she told me not to interrupt her while she was working, sleeping, or eating, which seemed to be all the time. So a lot of the time I was left alone, but at least she was _there_. Now I was left alone with nothing…and no one, for multiple hours every day.

I couldn't take it anymore, I was tired of this. I hated this family…I hated _them_. I refused to talk to complete strangers, and that's what they were to me. Even worse, they were strangers who took me away from my mom. I cried and cried and at one point started pounding the ground with my fists in my frustration. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair at all. They lock me up in this house for hours and hours and when they come back the mother cries about my unresponsiveness and the father hits me whenever he finds something half-way through my process of taking apart and putting together again, he would also slap me for seemingly stupid things, like when I accidently spilled juice on the carpet or for upsetting my 'mother'. I _hated_ them, from the bottom of my heart. But if I asked them to stop doing these things or started speaking, then I'd be _giving in_. I couldn't do that, giving in was for people with lesser will and shorter attention spans. No, I'll never speak to them. I'll give them the eternal 'silent treatment'. They can wait all they want but I'm not talking unlit I want to.

My tantrum only continued to worsen as I lost a grip on reality. My eyes widened as I heard the sound of breaking glass. I looked up from my fetal position of pity to see broken glass…_everywhere_. I gasped as I saw that the window in my parents' bedroom had broken into a million of sparkling pieces. I stared a bit as the renewed and unrestrained sunlight streaming into the bedroom made the small bits of glass glitter with a dastardly beauty. I was momentarily mesmerized by it as I started tilting my head side to side so that the sparkles would change. I sighed as I snapped out of it, realizing that I would be hit for this. I tiptoed around to glass to see my face in the mirror, but the mirror above the dresser had broken too, making different fragments of my face stare back at me. What had made the glass break?

I looked on the floor to see if there was a baseball that had broken the windows, it happened once on my neighbor's TV. But there were no objects that had been thrown through the windows, and I also realized that you couldn't break the mirror by throwing something through the window, it was too far from the windows and was at a completely different angel. I couldn't figure it out, but I knew I was going to get in trouble for it, anyways. I was suddenly filled with great anger, "It's…not…FAIR!" I screamed out for only myself to hear, my cries and screams would never reach another's ears.

I was alone in this new world. I kicked the lower bedpost of their bed in great frustration. "I'm not a mute! I speak fine!" I screamed out. I've always been weird, but I could always explain the reasoning behind my actions to myself, so I thought I was completely normal. It was everyone else who was weird. They try to make me like themselves because they think of their weird as normal and my normal as weird. It would only get worse as I got older. "There's…nothing…wrong with me." I mumbled in between sniff, I was starting to calm down, "Why can't they just…leave me alone?" I balled up my fists by my sides and raised my head for one final scream, "What have I done wrong?" I used one of my balled up fists to wipe away my last tears, "Someone…tell me so I can…make up for my mistake…" I felt hopeless and utterly alone.

* * *

"We can stop there for today…" Hydranoid's voice quivered.

"Are you kidding me?" Shun almost found what Hydranoid just said more unbelievable than the diary itself, "This is where it gets interesting! When else you get such a close look into someone's past, whether it's Masquerade or not." Shun tried to reason with Hydranoid.

"He's going to _skin_ me when he comes and realizes his diary has been read!" Hydranoid was close to crying.

"_If_ he realizes that his diary was read…" Shun smirked with a strange glint in his eyes.

"Shun…what are you going to do?" Hydranoid cautioned but with curiosity in his voice.

"Masquerade will know that we read it if he finds it here unlocked…but what if he can't find it at all? He'll just assume he misplaced it." Shun closed the diary with a shrug.

Hydranoid was still in a daze, "To think that, even at _some_ point in his life, Master was so vulnerable…"

"It just proves that's he's human. Good thing too, I was starting to think otherwise."

* * *

Masquerade was as quiet as always, but I didn't really mind. The view from the ferris wheel was beautiful. I pointed out all the cool and pretty things and Masquerade would just nod. I continued to stare out the window, deep in thought.

Masquerade seemed so detached sometimes it was hardly human. And yet, I couldn't help but think that maybe it was a tough guy act. Masquerade wouldn't have come if he didn't want to be with me.

But another question was…_why_ did he want to be with me? Was it because he had nothing better to do? Was it because I amused him? Or was it actually because he liked me? I really hoped it was the last one but I doubted it.

* * *

"Wait just a minute!" Hydranoid declared just as Shun was walking out the door, "Why do _you_ get to take the diary home? I won't be able to read it!"

Shun stopped to roll his eyes, "That's the point…"

"But why?" Hydranoid whined on Shun's shoulder.

"Once you read the diary, you'll see Masquerade differently. He'll notice your behavior and know something is up." Shun reasonably explained.

"Oh, come on! I'm not _that_ obvious." Hydranoid tried to defend himself.

"…even if I said you were the most obvious person in the world, it would still be an understatement…" Shun muttered honestly, taking the diary, and secretly Hydranoid, back home.

* * *

I then thought that a little TV could brighten up my mood. It didn't even bother me anymore that I couldn't hear the TV, sometimes I would be able to catch what they were saying, if the shot included their moving mouths, that is. Reading lips was a skill I developed quickly because of my visual memory and also because I wanted to know what they were saying on the shows. But it only worked if they used real actor and not animation or Claymation, for some reason they didn't bother making the mouth movements realistic enough to read lips. Bur sometimes, whenever the daughter watched TV, there would be subtitles. I guess, this is also where I learned to read. Who said TV was bad for your brain? The neighbor's daughter was weird. For some reason she needed to watch the TV with subtitles and she talked with her hands a lot. She must have been Italian. Naw, I'm kidding, I know she was deaf but only realized as I got older.

I ran to the window in the living room to look through the window that looked through the neighbor's window into his living room. At least this window wasn't broken, thank god. I moved a chair up to the window so I could see through. I saw the large, fat man beached on his small couch and knew he was asleep. I looked at his TV and hoped he forgot to turn it off again. Unfortunately this time his daughter had remembered to turn it off before her dad took one of his extremely long naps. "Darn it!" I said out loud, I probably would have used worse words if I knew them at that time.

I went into the kitchen to get my dad's mini tool kit. Fixing my misfit toys would cheer me up like it always did but as I walked around the house searching for broken toys…I realized I had already fixed all my toys. I sighed in frustration. My primary entertainment, fat man's TV, wasn't available, and my secondary entertainment, fixing broken toys, had run out. I already had the tool kit out, so I might as well do _something_ with it. I was about ready to _hit_ myself with the tool kit because I was so bored. I kept walking around the house to find something to do. After a while I admitted defeat and sat in the living room corner, making sure to brush out the cobwebs and trying to wipe the dirty floor with my bare hands before sitting down. I coughed from all the dust. Our house wasn't exactly…clean.

Without anything to do feelings of loneliness and lingering sadness settled in. "It's not fair," I couldn't help but say, "I'm not a mute…I'm not a mute…I'm not a mute." I repeated the phrase as I continued to cry. I ended up bailing my eyes out for what was probably hours. Just as I got over one issue I ended up thinking of another thing that upset me deeply at the time. Later I checked to see if the TV was on and I soon lost all my troubles as I watched the black and white car with the pretty red and blue lights race down an empty street after a big, black van that held ugly people with crooked or missing teeth, carrying sack bags over their shoulders.

After TV I looked at the dusty, hardly visible clock on the wall. Eight-thirty, my parents would be home in half an hour. I frowned when I thought of how my dad was going to react to the broken glass, he was probably going to teach me a lesson so I wouldn't do it again. I tried to thinks of ways to get out of it. I wasn't the one who did it in the first place! I couldn't think of anything good. Even if I decided to talk in front of him and explain to him it wasn't me who broke it or even beg him not to hurt me, he would still blame the broken window on me and punish me even if I begged him not to. But…I _could_ think of a way to _get back at him_.

I quickly took out the tool kit and stalked toward the dinner table. Mom's and dad's chairs were both different, so dad preferred his. Meaning he always sat in it. And that also meant I could sabotage the chair without worrying about someone else sitting in it.

I quickly loosened the screws that held the legs onto the seat of the chair so that the chair stood up but would collapse the moment someone tried to sit in it. I also had other strokes of genius as vengeance on my parents. I took a chair, other than the one I just rigged, and climbed onto the countertop near the sink. I took the faucet off and removed the filter, so that water would rush out but then I also had the idea of blocking the faucet with a bunched up strip of cloth towel. This way only a few droplets of water would be able to flow until the towel gives out to the pressure and a sudden flood of water would pour out. Perfect. I rigged the bathroom facet the same way and even took a random gear from the toilet. I didn't know how toilets worked but I hoped that it would do something to piss off dad. I also realized that I would also have an advantage if I—

I heard the door unlock and I scurried to hide the tool kit under the stained, dirty couch. I ran to the middle of the rug in the living room and sat down, trying to look as innocent as I could. Both mom and dad came in but they just stood by the door entrance, as if ready to flee at any moment. I was confused by the sudden change in attitude. But my dad regained his composure into the usual glare he gave me.

"Alright, it's over. We know you can talk now." He said as if he had won at something, which he hadn't. _I_ was about to win…big time…

My mother still looked uncertain about what to do next, "Please dearie, could you please say _something_?"

"Something." I said blankly.

"Great," dad said, "Either he's a complete moron who can only repeat what he hears or he just has a really _bad_ sense of humor."

He was trying to insult me but I couldn't help but smile at how pissed he was at me.

"At least he said something!" my mother said almost excitedly.

"Yeah, problem is…he literally said…_something_." Father sneered in disgust.

Mother came up to me and took something bright and plastic out of her backpack. It was one of those toy vacuum cleaners that had those little balls inside the clear half-orb like a snow globe and the balls would pop around when you pushed it across the ground, I had seen one on TV. Only when my mom rolled it toward me, the balls didn't come alive and pop around like it did on the commercial. I smiled at it, another broken toy that I could fix. I saw that there was a red piece of plastic in the middle that would go up and down that would push up the tiny balls. It probably moved using the motion of the rolling wheels. How that worked, I didn't know, I guess I would have to take it apart. Already I was trying to figure out how to fix it. My father gave me a look, I could see he was weirded out by my clear happiness over a worthless, broken toy. But to me that fact that it was broken while repairable made it far more valuable to me than any other toy ever sold at a toy store.

He sighed, "I'm just going to change out of my work clothes." He walked toward his bedroom.

My flinch was unnoticed. I was mentally bracing myself.

"What the hell?" father yelped from the bedroom.

"What is it, dearest?" my mother called from the kitchen as she heated up two TV dinners in the loud microwave.

"The windows! They're shattered all over the ground!" he called in something that sounded. He stormed out of the bedroom toward me.

Here it comes…my father stopped in front of my new toy. "So you like broken stuff, huh?"

I couldn't help the sick smile that appeared on my face from making him angry.

He rose his foot above the vacuum toy, "Well, how do you like _this_?" he stomped down so hard that not only did the clear plastic semi-sphere break into many pieces, so did the base of it break into two.

The smile on my face immediately dropped as I watched the colorful balls fly out of the toy onto the carpet. It was a complete contrast as the bright, plastic balls laid onto the dull, faded, dirty carpet. It was beyond repair now…what a shame, too, I had just gotten it. I tried to reach toward what was left of it under my dad's foot.

He saw this and lifted his foot again…only to bring down the heel of his booted foot onto my hand.

I yelped in pain, I had not expected it so I couldn't prepare myself.

The expression of his face changed into a sick smile of his own, "If I see one more thing broken…I'm going to break _you_!" his heel dug in harder when he uttered that last word.

Tears sprang to my eyes from the pain, I thought I heard something crack. But if there was anything I learned from my dad it was that if you your emotions in front of your enemies, they would exploit that weakness. Yet if you didn't allow any emotion to be shown, they would eventually get bored and give up, because they fed off of people's weakness and emotions. I composed my face into one of emotionlessness and stared up at his face, my eyes challenging his authority.

His smile fell off as his face turned into one of disgust. He took his foot off of me as he was creeped out by my sudden blank face. "Weirdo…" was what he said as he walked back to his bedroom to dress out of his work clothes.

I started rubbing my now swollen hand. All I wanted to do right then was hide under my bed, which was the living room couch, and cry about my new injury. I suddenly regretted all those thing I broke. The chair, the faucets, the toilet, the lock…he would find out about all of those eventually and then…_he would_, I started shivering badly…_break me_…

I looked over into the kitchen area. My mother had already set the dinner on the table and was sitting in her chair, waiting for her husband. She looked at my with pity. She tried to stand up for me when dad got too out of hand but…she was scared of her own husband…_useless woman_…

My dad walked in and sat down in his chair. He was lifting up the TV dinner to better see the mushed contents, probably trying to identify what exactly it was, when…his chair started to make a creaking noise and gave out. He fell backwards as the chair flew apart and all of his food fell onto his face and shirt.

"Poor chair, it wouldn't hurt to lose a couple pounds." I called from the living room. I couldn't help the smile that lit my face again. Playing with people was _much_ more fun than playing with broken toys. My father, yet again, came up to me. I made sure to make my face blank before he saw me. He was holding up a roll of something silver. He tore off a big piece and started pulling my hair to keep my head in place as he placed the duct tape over my mouth then slapped my face. It was hard to keep a straight face on but in the end he had been further agitated by my lack of response.

"Huh, guess you can't eat with that on your face." My father looked down at me and smirk, as if he had won. But I wasn't going to surrender, even if I was scared. Before, yesterday actually, they would starve me of my dinner if I verbally didn't ask for it. It was a way they tried to break me out of my muteness, which didn't even exist. But know he knew I could talk, it probably wasn't the smartest thing for me to do. Now I had no excuse to stay silent…even if it was one of the things that kept me safe. Now my too-smart-for-its-own-good tongue would get be beaten only worse. At least as a mute they had _some_ sympathy for having some physiological disorder but now…now I was hurt for talking rather than not talking at all. I couldn't win…but I wasn't going to give up. If I gave up I would just get hurt worse…and now I was learning about how to secretly get an upper hand.

"And just so you don't go and break anything else…" he took the roll and started wrapping my wrists together. I winced whenever his hand brushed against my injured one. _Great_…_what am I going to do now_?

By now my mother sat down on the couch next to us, observing us. I looked over at her and saw in her eyes…_admiration_. What the heck? Was it because she didn't know how to stand up to dad, herself? Useless woman…and yet I secretly had gratitude for the unspoken support.

"Great, we never even have enough money to get us some _real_ furniture and now most of it's broken?" dad shot me a very frustrated glare. "We can't even afford decent toys for the kid, he just gets that sick, goofy grin whenever he sees a broken toy…I doubt he's even smart enough to realize that he's playing with the leftovers after privileged kids were done beating it up with their filthy, snot-covered hands." He sighed then grumbled, "Retarted mute…" then he decided that he was done with picking on me and decided to move his frustrations toward his wife, facing her "It's all because of _that woman_—"

My mother's face turned red, "You will that refer to her as _that woman_!" I flinched at the sudden strength in my mother's voice. "_That woman_ was the one who helped while I was…expecting…she's the one who gave us hope after what happened to Elisa…_that woman_ is my closest friend!"

"Oh yeah? Well, that was just her job. She was the school consular, it was her job to hold the hand of crazed, prego teenagers and promise that everything was going to be ok! And it turns out…she was lying. Things went bad, quickly…" he made a short, almost wistful glance toward me before returning to my mother in a somber tone, "You know…the kid's right. The doctors are pretty stupid if that can't fix…one kid…"

The color drained from her face, "Robert, there was close to nothing they could do. Elisa came five months too early. No child had survived at that age anywhere else in the world."

Father all of a sudden seemed strained, he sat on the couch on the other side of the room, "We gave them everything we had, we threw away our college education. We did all this and asked them only to do one thing…save our daughter. They didn't hold to their end of the deal and now we're here living in a former crack house and having to work three jobs each just to get by. And all _she_ did was sit there, behind her desk, and promise that everything was going to be ok. Well she was wrong!"

"No! She wasn't! She's going to help us! And it's not because it's her job to, it's because she's our friend! She's going to finish the program and everything will _truly_ be ok! We'll share the profits with her and we'll have our hands on…_the perfect child_…" her voice changed at the last part, it had become far off yet powerful, like the soft rumble of a distant waterfall. I perked up at the mention of a _program_. Granted, I still didn't know what the word meant but I knew that it was very important…I knew it had to do with _money_.

My father looked up to sneer at me, "Why was the project to program the perfect child named after _him_? He's far from perfect. He just causes trouble. I could see why she'd try to get rid of this imp if she has the skills to program a perfect A.I. What's with her for dumping her kid on us because of a tight budget? Does she think our money problems are any less?"

I probably should've gotten angry at him for saying that my mother didn't want me but I was focusing too much on trying to analyze the conversation. Threw away college education? Share the profits? Tight budgets? Money problems? It _all_ had to do with money! The one thing my parents were always talking about not having enough of. All these bad things happened because we didn't have a lot of money. "_One day, once I'm finished with this program, we're going to be able to move into a big house together, just you and me!_" My real mom never mentioned money but now I understood that's why she worked on her laptop all the time. That's why she spent almost all her time working on _the perfect child_. The perfect child? My face turned red and I felt a sudden flash of jealousy. My mom had spent more time working on her 'program' then she had ever with me! She was more interest in this 'perfect child' than me, her own child. I looked down at the ground in shame. But why? Wasn't I good enough? Father was right, I _was_ far from perfect, but even imperfect things deserve attention.

Then it clicked in my mind. The perfect child _was_ the program and the program needed to be 'completed' for money. This 'perfect child' was going to make my mom lots of money…maybe she would even move into a big house with _him_. Yes, it was silly for me to feel replaced by a program, but I couldn't help it, I hardly understood anything. I searched my confused head for options. Maybe there was something I could do to become more perfect. Maybe there's a way I could make mom take me back. If mom needed a perfect child to get money for her then _I'll_ be that perfect child, not some program! But the thing that I still needed to figure out was…_how_ do you make money?

"When we knew her in high school she was already married and trying to start a family. She had two tube pregnancies and was told that she wouldn't ever be able to have a child. She was devastated and quit her job to start the project to program the personality of the perfect child. She once told me if she could've had a child she would have named it Riven. So it's not that the project was named after him…it's more so vice-versa." She seemed to drone on and on. I had trouble paying attention and I probably didn't know what they were talking about at that time.

"Wait, you said she wasn't able to have any children naturally…how did…" My dad seemed lost for words…it was a first.

"It seems sometimes miracles happen at the most strangest of times. She found out she was pregnant two weeks after her husband died in a car crash. She had quit her job to pursue Project Riven and lived off what her husband made but she only had so much money left. The job market wasn't the same and she couldn't get her job back, it had already been four years. So her only choice was to try to finish the program and make money off of it commercially. The project that she started eight years ago…apparently programming a person is no easy feat…"

"So it's because of this stupid project that we're stuck with the monster." Dad leaned further back in his couch, "But a program isn't the same as an actual child. Does she really think it would be the same even though her 'child' was put in a computer or robot?"

Mother looked down, "I guess…people just have different ways of dealing with grief…" she looked back up at father, "You take it out on Riven, don't you?"

Father immediately sat straight up, "_What?_"

Mother took her eyes away from him, she started looking at anything except his face, "I still remember my mother's words, 'It happened because she wasn't the only one who was much too early. Nothing good comes out of teen pregnancies, just bad reality shows, forced marriages, and broken dreams.' I always thought that the birth of a child was well worth it, whether they lived or not, or whatever family they were born into. But apparently I was wrong. Everyone started blaming us for it, even though it wasn't even their position to blame _anyone_. The doctors said it would not only be unsafe for future life but also myself if I tried to have another child. You weren't going to leave me, though. You took it just as hard as I did when Elisa died…maybe even harder. And yet this 30 year old woman with two previous tube pregnancies was able to have a perfectly healthy child…even when two perfectly healthy teenagers couldn't do it. And that's why you take it out on Riven."

I was confused because it was the longest time my mother had talked for in one sitting…and my father, for once, was speechless.

"Actually…" she turned her attention to me, "We probably shouldn't be saying all this with Riven right in front of us…"

_You finally notice it NOW?_ I couldn't help but snicker, I couldn't do much else, he had duct taped my wrists together.

"Nah, it doesn't matter. He's asleep. He wouldn't have the attention span to listen to this conversation, anyways." He waved his hand dismissively.

"You know…the kid's dangerously smart…" mother pointed out.

"He's a moron that likes to break stuff…" father mumbled.

All of a sudden my mother got this cold smile that sent shivers up my spine, "You shouldn't underestimate your enemies, it can lead to your defeat. In the future I can't see anything that'll stop him from returning your favors, he'll come after you…"

He all of a sudden became defensive, "He's not my enemy!"

Mother yawned indifferently, "You sure treat him like one."

"I have no fear, he's just a—"

"Wow, I'm tired! I'm gonna hit the hay!" Mother got up, walking to her bedroom, thus ending one of the very few times she ever starting telling dad off. I almost had a completely different impression of her after that. But it didn't last because after that she was as quiet and passive as ever…and she let dad push her around, again.

That night I didn't sleep very well. I decided to sleep beneath the couch instead of on top of it because my hand hurt when I tried to climb onto the couch and I also wanted to avoid my father's wrath in the morning (he was _not_ a morning person…actually, he's just not a whole _life_ person…). So not only I saw sleeping with the dust bunnies, my mouth was also taped closed and I couldn't take it off because my wrists were also taped together, which caused even more pain to throb through my broken hand. And also…I had a nightmare. Sure, nightmares are supposed to be normal and it was supposed to scare little kids. But this was far different from anything I had ever dreamt. I could hardly remember my other dreams when I woke up but for some reason this one was different. It was so clear and realistic there was no way I could forget it…even if I _wanted_ to forget it.

In my dream my parents were eating at the dinner table, nothing unusual. I was hungry, I wanted some food, too. I looked at my dad with hopeful eyes.

"If you want food, all you need to do is ask for it." He said with a nonchalant shrug.

I tried to open my mouth but then I realized there was duct tape on it. I tried to scream through it, so they could hear me, even if it was muffled.

My dad didn't even look at me again, he just muttered, "Retarded mute…"

I could feel tears forming in my eyes. I felt so defenseless, I didn't know if there was anything I could do to get an edge, to make him stop. I felt like the whole world hated me, I felt like the whole world _wanted_ me to be miserable.

Before I knew it, my emotions had gotten too much, they were out of control, and I heard the windows in the house break. I looked around the living room…but everything I laid my eyes on broke. The arm chairs and couch fell off their legs or supporters and their cushions blew up, white material flew around like snow. I even felt my tape break and peel off of me.

"Why you!" I heard my father's chair and heard him walk up to me.

I closed my eyes, the tears that were forming rolled down my cheeks, "I didn't do anything! I swear! I didn't even touch anything!"

"Yeah, right," father mumbled in disbelief.

"Why do you always have to be a troublesome child?" my mom sounded more hurt and sad than angry.

* * *

"But I didn't do anything!" I looked up at my father, who had now grabbed a fistful of my hair. The most strangest thing happened then, the arm that father was grabbing me with suddenly made weird cracking noises, like when he stepped on my hand, and his arm started twisting in weird angles. He screamed and fell to the floor dark, sticky, red liquid oozing out from him. My mother made a noise so I instinctively looked at her. Her screams of horror turned into screams of utter pain as her body started making snaping noises and twisted in weird ways. She, too, fell to the ground, over her husband.

I quickly looked around the room for what must have caused this but as I glanced around the kitchen, appliances starting breaking left and right. Then I realized that it was me _looking_ at these thing was the reason it broke. A moment of panic seized me. Was it really me who broke the windows? Could I break things with my emotions and gaze alone?

I glanced at the door, it crumbled into saw dust. I gingerly stepped outside. I stared into the skylight of downtown…and sure enough buildings soon started trampling over each other and windows broke, as if there was an earthquake. A small smile spread across my face. The world probably hated me…if that was really true, that's what I'm going to do to the world. I'll break anyone who opposes me.

I looked up at the bright, afternoon sky (at that moment I knew it was a dream because the sun's position said it was the middle of the day but my parents had been eating dinner). Instantly the sun extinguished, exposing the night sky. The sky seemed to shatter, like a broken mirror. Star starting falling toward me. I was all alone and soon the stars would come and burn me up…I felt a little happy. But there was an emptiness inside of me, where my stomach should've been. The falling stars were shining bright and were coming closer and closer but before they could burn we up the emptiness from my stomach expanded and swallowed me up.

The world disappeared into emptiness, nothingness, blackness…

But then a new image started fading in.

Flames and drab smoke rose up into the sky as it devoured the lush forest. Above circled three red and yellow dragons. They were looking for prey. They were all laughing obnoxiously, as if a burning forest was humorous. All of a sudden one of them babbled to the others in a different langue…that for some reason I understood.

"Oi, guys, I found a little one. She's all huddled up in terror!" the smallest one called out as he lowered his nose to dive toward the ground. The other two followed, laughing along the way, as if it was a sick game they were used to playing.

When they landed they changed forms. Their wings grew smaller and retracted. Their scales retreated, exposing tan or light skin. Turfs of fur sprung out at the tops of their heads and their snouts smashed into their faces and became deformed. In a blink of an they had passed for extremely handsome humans, all with cherry red hair and green or amber eyes.

"Whoa! This is a white one! I heard they're uber rare!" the medium-sized one with green eyes praised the smallest one.

The largest, muscular one, with amber eyes, crossed his slightly buffed arms in moderate approval, "It was easy enough for her to be spotted among all this green. I'm just surprised you didn't mistake her as a pile of snow…"

Looking at the curled up body at first glance…it _did_ look like a pile of snow. But if you took a closer look at it you could see that she wasn't purely white. In her long, straight, glossy white hair were strange light pink streaks, which only made her hair more beautiful and hard to stop looking at. She didn't even acknowledge the new-comers. She thought that if she ignored them, they would ignore her.

"Ay, cutie, tell us your name, would ya?" the smallest one with lengthy, toned arms yelped at her, like a rude drunk.

Even though she was still curled up in a fetal position she peered out with her bright red eyes and steadily met their eyes, "…why did you burn the forest?"

The three of them laughed and the medium one spoke up, "We wanted to see what cooked human tests like but Saber over here," he stuck his thumb up at the smallest one, "Well, he's no chef. He over-cooked them!" after the statement the medium dragonoid burst out laughing.

Saber looked as if he was blushing, "It's not my fault, my little body has a lot of flame. Anyways, we're done with the humans and their burnt down village. We're ready for some _new_ meat. And you're a perfect candidate!" he started muttering to his friends, "I heard that they're even tastier because they're so rare! Her being so cute is just a bonus!" slowly the medium and small dragonoids started creeping closer to the white bakugan, fangs now prodding out through there evil smiles, and eyes turning blood red.

She continued to stare steadily at them. She just wanted them to go away, she didn't want to cause a scene or fight. And she didn't want them to get hurt. That's right, she was worried about _their_ safety.

The large one all of a sudden stopped the other two by holding out his arm in front of them.

"What the hell?" the other two grumbled at him.

"Take a whiff at her, she's a dragonoid." The large one warned.

Saber, the small one, had immediately stopped and sheathed his sharp canines, his eyes returning to his natural amber. But the medium one didn't get the warning.

"So?" he angrily questioned.

"Baka!" Saber slugged the medium one on his head, "The white dragonoids are cursed! Everyone knows _that_! It's a curse that is passed down to their children through the blood! What if it can be passed down by the consumption of her blood?"

The medium one sheathed his fangs and his eyes turned back to green, "R-really?"

The large one sniffed the air and became rigid, "Hey guys, we should get out of here while we can—"

Suddenly a small, white, dragonoid flew in and…swallowed the large red haired man whole. He landed in front of the other two and transformed into a small boy with pure white hair, very pale skin, and cool red eyes, narrowed toward the dragonoids. "Lay a hand on my sister and you will join your friend!"

The medium one held up his hands in a defensive stance, "C-chill out, dude! We were about to leave!"

The small boy's eyes narrowed further, "I'm afraid that I have already deemed your lives worthless…"

In a blink of an eye Saber's friend was on the ground face-first, dark red liquid seeping from him.

The once pure white boy was now covered in blood, he held his arms out, obviously intending to protect his sister, "Fortunately for you, I've decided to spare you. Go and tell your friends that it's _unacceptable_ for bakugan to eat each other! That's what the humans are for!"

The girl white bakugan threw a weird look at his back that said, '_Then why did you eat another bakugan yourself?_'

After Saber transformed and flew off the small boy turned to his female counterpart, "Wyvern!" he barked out.

Wyvern stood up and regarded the pale boy with an annoyed glare, "What?"

The boy was angered by her casual reaction, as if nothing had happened, "What do you mean by 'what'? You could've gotten eaten!" he flailed his arms childishly to emphasize his point.

"But they weren't going to…they thought if they ate me they would become cursed…" Wyvern said, confused. She couldn't help but hear his voice inside her head, '_The white dragonoids are cursed! Everyone knows that!_' "Brother…what did they mean by curse?"

Her brother looked troubled, Wyvern could tell he knew the answer…but wasn't going to tell her, "It's better if you don't know now." He held her hand, "Come on, Monix wanted to see us."

"Father? What is he up to?" Wyvern asked in surprise as her brother transformed half-way, so only his wings appeared.

"I don't know…but I think it has something to do with the humans." And with that they both fully transformed and flew off.

Suddenly other images of different bakugan chasing and burning and eating humans. They were all beasts, not even caring how the humans reacted to them. Women cried for their children, only to catch the attention of other hungry monsters. Lost children cried out for their parents, whether they were eaten or just separated in the chaos of the disaster. The last image I saw was a woman with a swollen belly being stampeded by a large group of people running away from a giant, black centipede…darkus centipoid.


	14. In the Past: Grandma! Will the pain end?

**A/N:**

kd: Alright, first of all...I had forgotten to credit Jet for something...

Jet: You better believe it!

kd: *sigh* I forgot to mention that it was Jet who came up with the name 'Riven'...

Jet: Yup! It's all me!

kd: *cough* though she _did_ get it off a character from the Winx Club...

Jet: Hey! If you don't like the name, then don't use it! Doesn't matter where I got it, I still thought of it XD!

kd: *mumbles* Yeah, yeah...

Jet: It's at least better than the names you came up with the two characters in this chapter ...

kd: Hallen and Grumble?

Jet: yeah...

kd: Alright, alright, that's why I'm having a name contest for them in the reviews! If you guys are confused of what part they have in the plot, it's that it's a fun way to explain the past, when the bakugan first invaded the earth, and Masky sees it in his dreams when he was younger. So everything right know in how Masquerade figured things out. Later Grumble and Hallen because pretty impaortant characters so...I hope that I can find good names for them if you guys don't already...

Now on to the second thing I wanted to say. I really wanted to thank Obsessive-Fan Number 1 for that review, it made me very happy to know that _someone_ got the 'Macbeth' reference, you'll find even more connection to it later =3. Also I understand your confusion about the earlier conversation Riven had with Elisa. Thank you for being observent but remeber, I've already said this, I've been planning these next chapters for a long time, so there are no plot holes.

In the beginning I thought I was going to do only a few random clips of his diary but then decided to do a full, chronological diary write of his early childhood and onward. So really, that's a later clip. You'll understand the connection later on in the normal diary chapters.

On one last note. I understand that I changed my mind about the purpose of this story many times, and so it's beginning is kinda crack and doesn't flow well with it's lastest chapters. I apologize for that, I had a lot of ideas that I tried too hard to put together. But I PROMISE a rewrite of the earlier chapters along with a new title once I finish the story. PROMISE!

And so without further ado...here is CHAPTER 14! I love you all!

* * *

I banged my head at the bottom of the couch. I moaned in pain, but it was muffled by the duct tape that was still there. I dared myself to look at my hand…and I had seen prettier meatloaf before. The back of my right hand was an ugly purple and hurt like hell but I couldn't really do anything about it because my wrists were still duct taped together. That was the first thing I would have to take care of.

I wriggled out from the couch and looked at the clock. It was nine in the morning…I had missed the opportunity to get breakfast…and to get this tape off of me. My stomach growled, it felt so empty. I started to get scared. What if the emptiness in my stomach swallowed me up like it had in my dream? My stomach growled again, it felt like I hadn't eaten in days…actually I _hadn't_ eaten for days. They didn't feed me my dinner from two nights ago because they tried to get me to verbally ask for my food. They didn't feed me yesterday morning because of the doctor visit and they didn't feed me yesterday's dinner because I had angered father with my words instead of angering him with my silence.

But I had to get my hands free. It would have been easier if my hand didn't hurt but I managed to find a sharp piece of metal under the kitchen sink. After that the rest of the duct tape was gone. And I was really just stuck with one problem after that…I was _really_ hungry. Of course, I didn't feel like climbing of the cabinets for a quick snack because one of my hands were injured.

But then I remembered that I had sabotaged the lock to the front door. All I had to do was open it…

Wait, I couldn't do that! The last time I did something like that my mom…

It didn't matter! I just wasn't going outside because I was tired…yeah, that was it…

I would have to go through all the trouble of finding a chair that I hadn't ruined yet, pushing it all the way up to the door, then having to climb up the chair making sure only to use my good hand, turn the knob, then I would have to get down and push the chair away to open the door because house doors open inward and the chair would block it, otherwise.

It was simply too much work! Yeah…that was the reason I didn't want to go outside…Oh, who am I kidding, I was starving! And not to mention bored. A chair was against the door and the door was open before I could even utter "freedom".

No matter where I went I saw a towering black structure that looked more like a really old banana peel rather than a famous land mark. People walked around, paying a small boy no mind in the busy lunch-hour of the city. My stomach rumbled with the thought of food. I saw people sitting outside a restraint with fancy chairs and tables. The outside portion of the restraint was separated from the rest of the side walk by a black, gothic-looking fence but there was _one_ table being used that was close enough that I could literally steal food off of someone's plate. But that would attract too much attention, something I could do without.

If it was as simple as stealing off of someone's plate, I wouldn't be starving, would I? I guess I would just have to look somewhere else.

After some walking around I came upon an actual _green_ area. There were trees, birds, playgrounds, thing I had only seen on TV. Children swung on the swing sets while their parents stood watch nearby and talked to one another. The conversations ranged from who just had a child to how the government was wasting their tax dollars, all useless. The only thing that attracted my attention was an old woman sitting at the bench.

She was breaking up a perfectly good loaf of bread, probably bought from one of the many nearby bakeries in the city, and threw the crumbs on the ground where a flock of pigeons had gathered. She was giving food to a bunch of animals…of course I got angry.

"What in the world are you doing?" I demanded as I walked up to the bench, scaring away the filthy birds.

The woman frowned as she watched her companions fly away but when her eyes fell upon the small 4-year-old boy in front of her her frown was replaced by a smile, "Why…I am feeding the birds, of course." She said as if what she was doing was the most natural thing in the world.

I didn't really know what to this in this situation. I could…1.) steal the half loaf of bread from her…but stealing from an old woman isn't really the best thing you can do…2.) yell that she shouldn't be giving dirty animals bread when there are starving children in the world…3.) calmly explain to her that if she doesn't give me the loaf of bread _right now_ I was going to eat a pigeon…

I must have been silent for too long because the woman looked at me a bit strangely before saying, "Why don't you take a seat?" She patted the spot on the bench next to her.

I sighed and did as she suggested. She kept feeding the birds even in my presence. My stomach growled again. She looked at me with a look of sympathy and chuckled, "So that's why you're so irritated, huh?"

"Shut up…" I muttered, not wanting to be teased by this silly woman who throws food on the ground.

Another laugh escaped her lips as she started searching through her purse. She pulled out another loaf of bread. I grabbed it out of her hands before she could even offer it to me. "Oh my," she said as she poked my skinny arm, "Your parent don't feed you enough! By the way, where are your parents?"

I didn't say anything, not because I had a giant chunk of bread in my mouth but because I didn't want to. I secretly hoped that something bad was happening to them right now. I imagined my father walking down the sidewalk during his lunch break when…a pillar of the new museum starting falling toward him then—I snapped out of the daydream…or 'day'mare.

We sat next to each other in silence. She continued feeding the worthless birds as I continued to think about the horrible things I wanted to happen to my parents, wherever they were. I imagined that my dad was walking to go to a restraint for lunch, a restraint probably much too fancy for our budget, when a column from a new building started tilting and fell toward him. The daydream disappeared with a flinch.

"You have such old eyes," The old woman commented, "You look at nothing yet you see everything."

I really had no idea what she was talking about and I didn't want to stick around to hear the old bat explain it. I simply got up without a single word. As I left I could hear her talking to herself, or to the birds, perhaps, "What a strange child…"

Yep, to everyone else I was strange. Only I understood myself…and sometimes I can't even say that!

When I slipped back into my house, I pretended to be looking out the window, daydreaming. I didn't even turn my head toward them. It was only until I heard father groan that I turned my attention to them. My mother gasped as she pointed at my father's bandaged hand, "Robert! What happened to your arm?"

"You won't believe this! When I was walking to lunch during break a pillar was about to fall on me!" My eyes widen as I looked out one of the few unbroken windows. That's what I saw ealier today! After I had wished that something bad would happen to me. Could I have actually caused that? "Luckily, I got away with just my hand being crushed, there were a lot of people around so help arrived fast." In the reflection of the window I saw a cruel smile spread across my face. I glanced at my own broken and bruised hand. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, right? Whether I had caused that mishap or not no longer bothered me for I now understood the joy from other's misfortune. It was a bitter-sweet thrill and rush, it was a taste I'd never forget.

For the next few days I did the same thing. I escaped through the sabotaged lock when my parents went to work, without them knowing and I went to the park only to find the woman there feeding the birds…again. Every day when she showed me a loaf of bread I would take it before she could even offer it to me. I horked it down and never said thank you…or anything at all for that matter. I started feeling like one of the animals she fed just for fun. After that I would just sit next to her in silence until I got bored and went home.

After a week had passed she wouldn't offer me bread anymore but real, home-made cooked meals, while still feeding the birds bread crumbs. Sometimes the meal seemed to be made fresh, as if she went through the trouble of cooking it right before she came to the park at I time I always showed up.

I had never tasted anything like it. My parents always ate TV dinners because they didn't have the time to cook. Even my birth mom had never cooked. And I never remember eating any _real_ food when I was with her because the majority of the time I was still on baby food. The homemade meals were like heaven on earth for a starved child. And I didn't even mutter one, little 'thank you'. I mouthed it, 'merci!' after I had finished my last lunch with the old woman. The word felt strange on my mouth, stranger than the meal itself, because I had never really had anything to be thankful for, I never needed to use this word. It was a strange, alien, word that I never thought I would've utter.

Just as I started staring at the woman, trying to say what I wanted to, but finding myself unable, she spoke up, "Why is it that you never speak? Not that I mind, of course."

I opened my mouth but nothing came out.

She smiled at me but then sighed and looked at the group of birds at her feet, "The pigeons never speak to me, either, they can't. They can never tell me how the bread tastes or thank me for it or talk to me about the weather. They come and they go and I never see them again. But they are company, nonetheless." She turned to me again, "I haven't cooked for years, how is it? Can you even speak?"

I looked down at the empty container that she had given me my meal in, "I can't speak because I'm a mute…" I looked up at her confused face and couldn't help but laugh. Sometimes the funniest jokes are the ones only you understand…

* * *

(A/N: This is one of Riven's dreams, just making sure you guys understand this somewhat random scene)

There was a large village surrounded by exotic jungle. In that village people with rich bronze or light chocolate skin and bare chests walked around. There were many humble huts where you could hear babes crying and their mothers trying to coo them back to sleep. There was also a gathering place, a town square, where people casually chatted and conducted a grand market place. In the north corner of town square was a tall tower, a tower that reached above the trees, a tower that housed the servents of the gods. The tower was the biggest structure in all the land, so it was the closest thing to the gods. Its shadow and presence overpowered the people in the gathering place below, always reminding them that 'they' are watching. Reminding the villagers that 'sacrifice day' was coming up. The villagers pretended to be at ease and to live their lives as if nothing bad will happen but you could tell by the atmosphere that something was wrong, and that the villagers were trying to hide it with a fake smile or two.

Nonetheless it was a beautiful day and children played on the game courts that were placed randomly around the village, near the gathering. It seemed like all the children were outside doing _something_. Playing, crafting, hunting. All the children, that is, except one. (A/N: I'm not really sure if I should come up with a new name or not. Name contest, anyone? (please add a name suggestion to your review)) At the very top floor of the temple tower Grumble looked vacantly at his history book as the highest priest droned on and on about how the gods came to be. Grumble sighed, it was supposed to be his first lesson in history, he was still in the very beginning of his textbook, and it was already as boring as hell. Worst yet, Grumble had this horrible feeling that he was forgetting something…that something was missing from this room…

"The gods are our savior. In earlier times, 'The Age of the Demons' had rained down upon us. They ate our villagers and caused mass chaos throughout our humble society. Just as things started to seem hopeless, our savior, the white dragons, came to our rescue!" The highest preist, Grumble's father, rambled.

Grumble raised his hand, though he was the only other person there.

His father enthusiastically pointed to his son, "Yes! Grumble!"

"But weren't the gods the same as the demons?" Grumble pointed out.

His father stared at him for awhile, as if he had never thought about it, then his face started turning red with anger, "They are nothing like those demons who ate our ancestors!"

"But…I thought they were of the same species…" he looked very confused.

"And who told you that?" His father asked furiously. Grumble knew that his father could execute someone for heresy, and would, if he mentioned a name. But how do you execute a god for heresy? Grumble kept quiet. "That's what I thought, you're just pulling these impossible ideas from your head, aren't you?"

"They're called bakugan!" he burst out, not wanting to be discredited for speaking the truth.

"That's enough!" The highest priest took the paddle from the corner and hit his son's wrist.

"The gods, after saving us, agreed to leave there beloved land in the sky and take permanent residence on earth, agreeing to protect us from the demons in return of monthly sacrifices."

"They even eat people like the demons do, too…" Grumble muttered, again having his hand slapped.

"And over time they have given our people the greatest of gifts. They have given us the language that we read and speak today. A language we call 'The Tongue of the Gods'-"

"But, wait," Grumble quickly cut off his father, "What happened to the language that the humans originally spoke? What happened to all the other history? Why is the beginning of 'The Age of the Gods' the very first chapter? What happened _before_ the gods came?"

"Ah, well, that is something that is lost. Many humans were killed in 'The Age of the Demons' so teaching the last of the human population a new language was an easy feat. Only a few of the elders even know a little of the 'Olden Tongue'"

"That's horrible!" Grumble spoke up.

"That's the way it is!" his father snapped at him.

"So what, a couple of demons tried scared off all the other demons so that they could have 'human eating rights', how are they our saviors? I'm sure the humans were doing fine before the demons _or_ the gods came! Why must we comply and switch our language to that of human eaters and forget everything about ourselves that made us an independent species? Did we really need to stop using our true, native tongue just because some demon said that it would be blasphemous otherwi-" Grumble never got to finish his speech because he was slapped in the face.

"I will _not_ sit and listen to this accusing of the gods!" the high priest nearly screeched in horror at his son's indecency. Only when he noticed Grumble reaching for the door did he lower his voice again, "And just where are _you_ going?"

"I'm going to the elders to learn 'Olden Tongue'!" Grumble announced stubbornly.

"Oh no you're not!" his father locked the door to the study on the top floor, "It's against the gods' wills for one to learn 'Olden Tongue'."

"Against the gods' wills or against _your_ will?" Grumble pointed out before literally jumping out the window for a quick escape.

The Highest Priest's eyes shot wide open as he hurried to the window, shocked that his son would kill himself over this. It was the top floor of the mighty tower, surely anyone would die from _half_ the fall but when the priest looked out the window he saw that his son had gracefully landed on the roof of a hut and now jumped from rooftop to rooftop to the Elders' Hut. There was no denying what he was…

"Grandma! Grandma!" Grumble called to the old woman who was currently weaving a basket. She wasn't actually related to Grumble but all of the village children have nick-named her as 'Grandma Tiria'. The village Elders were the most respected people in the land, below the priests, of course. In meetings they hold much influence through their natural wisdom and gentle charm. They all live in the Elder's Hut and, even though they have no living relatives left, are greatly loved by the entire village. They live in comfort as they lived off of donations from the villagers. "Grandma Tiria! Teach me 'Olden Tongue'!" Grumble demanded.

The old woman's eyes widened as she dropped the half-weaved basket. Her mouth hung open as if I had swore at her. "But why…how…I mean…" She tried to get her words in order, "Why in the world would the son of the High Priest want to learn 'Olden Tongue'?"

"Grandma Tiria, isn't it tragic that the human race will lose their original tongue? Isn't the 'Olden Tongue' part of what makes us human?" Grumble acclaimed politely.

In the end Grandma Tiria agreed to secretly teach Grumble 'Olden Tongue' so that part of humanity could be passed down once again.

* * *

After that, after I had eaten my meal, of course, all we did was talk. First it was about idle things like the weather, or what shows we watched on TV, or about the different attractions in Paris. But after a while our talks got a lot deeper and personal. At some point, I had to ask, "Grand-mère! (A/N: French for Grandmother) Grand-mère! Why is it that you come here every day to feed the birds? I'm pretty sure by now that the pigeons here are as big as turkeys!"

She looked up at the sky, her silver-grey bangs falling down her cheeks, "I just needed the company…"

"Company? Why birds and not humans?" Surely humans were much more fun being with other than a bunch of dumb birds that just came for food. But I used to come for just the food, too…

She heaved a heavy sigh, "All the humans I know now, except for you, have just been paid to take care of me…"

"What do you mean?" people were being paid to take care of an old lady?

She smiled at me, "I live in a retirement home."

"A retirement home?"

"It's for old people who have no family members to take care of." Her smile seemed to fade at the mention of 'no family members'.

"What…happened to them?"

She looked up at the sky again, the fleeing birds, but wasn;t actually _looking_ at it, "My husband, he passed away from canser of the blood right after the birth of my only child. We had one daughter and I watched her grow up and get married. She was expecting a child with my beloved son-in-law. She was rushed to hospital when she was close to delivering her child but they got into a car crash. My son-in-law swerved the car so that the impact would hit himself and not my daughter and her child. Even after losing him, she had to be rushed to the hospital to deliver her child. Maybe recent events had caused her too much shock because she couldn't deliver my grandchild, and died trying, in childbirth." She now turned to me with a weird sad-happy smile on her face, it instantly reminded me of how my mother smiled on that day. "I imagine that if my grandchild had lived through the ordeal," she gently stroke my cheek, "that he'd be a lot like you."

Tears formed in my eyes. I knew it was a sad story but why was she smiling like that? How could a smile look so sad? Was it the smile of accepted loss, admitted grief? Was this how my mother felt when she looked at my face for the last time? I remembered my own cruel smile that I wore not too long ago, when my father had almost been killed.

That's when I learned that a smile can mean many things…

* * *

The next day Grumble looked around the room and realized what was missing, "Where's Hallen?"

"He's with the rest of the children." The priest said simply.

"What? Why? He's my twin brother, he's supposed to be in religious training with me!" Grumble started to feel a panicking raise in his chest. Hallen was his big brother, he was supposed to help Grumble! They were supposed to help each other get through this Spartan-style training! They were supposed to…be the ones to share each other's pain.

"Starting today he will be learning with all the other village children." Father waved his hand, as if expecting that it would 'wave away' the current subject.

"But he's the son of the highest priest, your _eldest_ son! It would be mad _not_ to include him in training toward priesthood, he's supposed to someday take your place!" Grumble yelled out. This was starting to become ridiculous.

"Enough! This does not concern you!" he barked out.

"Of course it concerns me! He's my only brother. Ow!" Grumble yelped in pain as his hand was slapped with the paddle.

"He…does not have the talent for this training. And _you_ are my eldest now."

"What? What do you mean I'm your eldest now?" Grumble's eyes widened as he realized what his father had done, "No…" he whispered in dread.

"He has not lived up to my expectations and so, because the law states that only the eldest has the right to inherit a position, I disowned him making _you_ my eldest, don't fail me…" he muttered with a dangerous look in his eyes.

Tears threatened to fall from Grumble's eyes. Sometimes fathers with high positions will disown their eldest because they like the mother of the other one better or if they have better talent for it, but just because it was common practice didn't make it anymore easy to deal with. The village orphans lived in the healer's hut, which was more like a building, like an ancient hospital, where they trained to help the common people and eased their own pain at losing their parents by giving life to others but not everyone there actually had dead parents, some were like Hallen, _disowned_. Grumble could only imagine the pain and disgrace his brother felt now. He had to find him.

Grumble, yet again, decided to cut their history lesson short and look for his brother.

"The gods not only gave us protection from the demons they also gave us a language with a complex writing system which has allowed us to raise from our more primitive state of sharing information by tongue to being able to keep written records of events and people…are listening, Grum-" The High Priest stopped mid-sentence when he noticed that Grumble was positioned to jump out the window…again. "Are you crazy? You were lucky the first time but you'll break your neck if you jump from such-" but…again…Grumble decided to ignore his powerful father to do follow his own desires. He was no doubt the most rebellious child in the village, and he gained a strange sort of pride from that.

Grumble forcefully pushed open the door to the Healer's Hut so that it actually was ripped off.

The town's healer, Layia, a tall, hard-working woman suddenly looked up from mixing potions to see the small boy that had broken her door, "What the-"

Grumble offered no apology nor explaination, "Where's Hallen?" he demanded.

Layia glanced at Grumble with almost an apologetic look, "He's in the barracks, crying in a corner…"she sighed with sympathy.

He didn't wait for a second, Grumble rushed to where the other children slept. His eyes quickly spotted a copper colored back, that looked much like his own, huddled close to the corner. "Hallen!"

The trembling boy did not look up.

Grumble ran up behind him and pulled on his shoulder so that his brother would look at him in the eye, "Get a hold of yourself!"

The smaller boy sniffed, his face was smeared with dirt, snot and tears, "Why…*sniff*…should I? I," he looked at the ground, "Should have seen it coming…" Hallen looked up at the face which seemed too different from his. Yes, they were twins, but they weren't identical. To Hallen Grumble seemed to be everything he wasn't. He was unbelievably strong, he always a mysterious demeanor about him and he seemed to know how to get what he wanted. Even his face…seemed better looking than Hallen's face, and those blood red eyes, those bright irises…

"What do you mean 'I should have seen it coming'? I sure as hell was surprised!" Grumbled yelled at his brother.

Hallen sighed. Foolish brother, the only thing wrong with Grumble was that he couldn't see how great he was, or at least that's what Hallen thought. "Grumble you're smarter and a better studier and you can do rituals as if it's a second nature, everyone has problems with rituals but you've never failed…once." Indeed, this was an unusual talent. Rituals were what you needed to do to convert the power of the gods into a specific task. It included writing down the 'Tongue of the Gods', usually with the sealing of a circular pattern, and sometimes including a sacrifice to the gods in return for using their power, sometimes you didn't need a sacrifice if you gave up your own blood in writing down the ritual. It was very hard to do because you needed to draw the complex characters exactly right, let alone _choose_ the correct characters, for it to work, and, of course, the gods can choose _not_ to carry out the ritual. Hallen had only succeeded with a single character ritual, surround by a a single lined circle, which he used to heal a paper cut, every single other time, he fail.

"Don't worry about it!" Grumble said fiercely. He stood up from kneeling next to his brother, "I'll fit it! I'll fix everything!" He then ran to the door.

"But wait! How are you going to fix it? What are you even going to do?" Hallen reached out to his brother's silhouette, a dark figure against the strong sunlight that flooded in the room from the door being opened.

"First of all, I'm going to tell mom!" Grumble yelled from the doorway.

"Wait! You can't! You shouldn't worry her because she's already bed-ridden with weakness, she won't be able to do anything…" But Grumble had already ran off…


	15. An ending brings a new beginning?

**A/N:**

Hey guys! Sorry for making you wait. I told Jet I wasn't going to post this chapter until she read _all_ of the last chapter...she still didn't but by then I had already written the chapter. I hope you enjoy it! But I'm afriad I'm, yet again, losing more and more interest in this story, espeically since Jet keeps critising Grumble's name (though I personally like it!) and refuses to read the parts with him in it. _Darn it!_ Those parts become important later! Oh well, enough of my ranting! Enjoy~

* * *

It had been a month. I had grown extremely attached to me 'Grand-mère' and enjoyed the fact that my parents haven't realized that the lock to the front door was broken yet. At home, all of the toys were fixed and pushed into a corner to collect dust. Even the broken toys weren't being played with. Most of the house items, including the windows, had magically been fixed. Nothing else had broken since then. The TV in the neighbor's house was minus one audience member and the cabinets were no longer ransacked by a hungry 5-year-old for food.

Without my dad finding anything to get angry at me for he didn't hurt me as often and my hand was able to heal. It seemed like things were looking up. Of course, good things never last.

I really liked the old woman and we talked about a lot of things. When I visited her I learned a lot from her, a lot about life, because she had so much of the life experience I was lacking from being locked up in a rundown, one-bedroom house. This one day she seemed to be acting strangely.

"Grand-mère, what's wrong?" I asked with concern.

"Oh it is nothing, my dear," she petted my really short, sticking up, spiky hair, "I'm just thinking…"

"You do _a lot_ of that!" I pointed out the way she usually stares off in space.

Grand-mère chuckled, "You do a lot of thinking when you get older…"

I shrugged, "Kinda seems like a waste of time to me."

She smiled kindly at me, "Yes…time is something that you should not waste. Your time on earth is precious thing but…there are times for thought and times for action."

The sunset that day seemed strangely beautiful as I walked back home. In the distance a flock of startled birds rose up into the red-pink sky, like a bunch of black dots beside the black skeleton of the Eiffel Tower.

* * *

I went the day after, hungry for food and companionship, when I saw that the lady wasn't sitting on her usual bench. The pigeons, though, had come expecting food at this time. I looked around to see if she was on any of the other benches, not that she's ever sat on them before, I was just trying to rule out the possibilities before I got worried. She was nowhere in the park.

I sat on my usual spot, the spot that was always next to the old woman, and looked down at my feet and the hungry birds below them, the birds Grand- mère loved so much. I sat like that for an hour, not knowing what to do. Was she unable to come because she was sick? That's likely because she's an old person, she _did_ say that her health was not what it used to be. Or she could've just slept in…she's the only old person I know but I'm sure that it happens sometimes…I'm sure it's completely normal for someone to sleep in at 2 o'clock…I sure hoped that was the case.

Not much later a man in a pin-striped suit approached me. "Ummm…evening…sir…" you could tell he felt akward about addressing a child as 'sir' but it looked like he had something important to do. Something with money, probably. "Are you Riven Macbeth?" he asked in an all-buisness tone.

I looked at him with a surprised face.

"So…I assume you know Ms. Willas?"

Ms. Willas? Oh, that was Grand-mère's name! "Sure," I said nonchalantly. I wonder what kind of business this man in a fancy suit had with Grand-mère…

The man audibly gulped, "I'm here…to inform you that…Ms. Willas has passed away in her sleep."

"Passed away?" by now I was only 6 so I didn't understand the term.

The man paled slightly, "Dead…Ms. Willas is dead."

I sat still. I felt like I had become a statue, frozen in time. I felt small. Right then I was in my small house again, curled up in fetal position and all the windows were breaking. The windows were broken, the toys were broken, the house was broken, and _I_ was broken.

I slowly looked over the business man, he flinched at my expression, though I don't know what expression I was wearing at the time. Probably a cold and dark one. All of a sudden the glass from the light post shattered and rained down around me, but never cutting me. It was fitting as I lived in a Broken World. (A/N: Lol, name of the last chapter…)

"Ummm, but there is some good news!" the man in a suit seemed scared.

I looked at him in the corner of my narrowed eyes, "What?"

"She had no living relatives left so…she left everything to you, including the deed to her house." He mumbled.

I instantly perked up. A house? All at once the pictures I had seen with my mom were brought up to my mind. The white, square box with a neat white, picket fence and flower beds nuzzled up to the bottom of the house. A tan beach house that glow golden in the light of the sunset. A house that would be all mine. It was like a dream come true.

"Of course, a child cannot legally possess such money so it goes to your parents…" he flashed me a nervous smile

The dream had turned into a nightmare. My parents would, no doubt, misuse the money that was supposed to be mine. Many times they had discussed the financial plans that would go in place whenever they received a windfall, like saving money for a new house or paying off their credit card debt, but whenever that _did_ get a large amount of on one sitting mom spend it on expensive designer clothing that really looked no better than her normal clothes and dad would always drink and gamble away money and come home drunk…which was never a good thing for his hated son. It's just a good thing that drunks are more likely to miss when hitting at a small target.

In the end, there was nothing I could do. When I went back home, hungry and in shock, I quietly sat in a stained arm chair and stared at the ceiling. 'You have such old eyes,' I heard her voice in my head, I remembered every wrinkle on her face and what she was wearing on exactly that day, 'you look at nothing yet see everything'. When she first said that I thought she was crazy but now I knew what she meant. There was no pain, no emotion. There was just emptiness. If I showed emotion in front of my dad, he would take advantage of my weakness. The only thing I could do was lock them inside myself. I would pretend as if nothing happened. And so many images of Ms. Willas passed through my mind…with no emotions attached. It had all become another old picture pushed to the back of my mind, like the pictures of those houses, just some dusty old photos with lost meaning.

* * *

In the middle of the tower there were the sleeping place of the higher ranked priests, the lower ranked priests slept closer to the bottom, or in the surrounding buildings. Grumble's mother, though women were not allowed to become priests, lived in the middle of the tower, on the same floor as their father, The Highest Priest of the land. The very top levels of the tower were used for prayer and rituals because the sky belonged to the gods and the closer you were to the sky, the closer to the gods you became.

Grumble's mother had been labeled harshly by their society. At best she was a strange character, at worst she was a horrible freak of nature. Many people, including most of the priests, thought she was unholy and shunned her.

She sat up in her bed as she saw Grumble enter the room. Her sickly appearance pulled at Grumble's heartstrings. She was pale…snow white pale. Something that was explained away to everyone as a symptom of the rare disease she had. Of course, only the Highest Priest _truly_ knew why she was the way she was. Her pure black hair made an amazing and beautiful contrast against her other-worldly skin. She smiled at Grumble when he knelt down by her bed-side. For as long as Grumble could remember his mother had always been bed-ridden, leaving the responsibility of raising them to the Highest Priest, who really didn't have enough time to care about a couple of little kids, the village must have been much more important than the raising of his own children. Hallen and Grumble had to learn how to take care of themselves at a very early age.

"I have missed you." She placed a weak, caring hand on top of Grumble's matching, midnight black hair, "You have grown a couple of inches since I last saw you. You just seem to get bigger and bigger every time you come to visit." she coughed.

"And _you_ just seem to get smaller and smaller, mother," Grumble said in a concerned tone as he held up his mother's frail arm, "Maybe when I come tomorrow your arms will already be as skinny as the kindling Hallen is now forced to collect for the Healer's Hut…"

His mother looked at him, her mouth forming an 'O' in shock, "…what?"

"Mother, you must stop Father! He has disowned Hallen so that I would become the eldest and heir to the position of Hightest Priest! My brother is devastated, it's not fair!" Grumble blurted out.

His mother thoughtfully looked out the window, "Maybe it is for the best…"

Grumble stared at her wide eyed. How could his mother say that about her own son?

She recognized Grumble's agony, "Grumble…this may be better for both Hallen and the Village. Hallen is much too fragile for the job of Highest Priest…"

"But that doesn't mean he has to get kicked out of his home! Why can't he just be given an equal chance as me and it be decided on skill?"

"Because that's not how it works…only the eldest can take to position of the father. I'm sorry…Grumble."

Grumble didn't want to hear about 'how things worked' he was going to rid this world of all the injustice he knew. He knew Hallen deserved the same chance as him. He knew that the 'gods' were really just demons who ask for humans to eat instead of hunting them. He knew that from the voice in his head…

* * *

"The kid got us a house!" My father stared at the will in surprise when he saw that everything was entitled to me. "We don't even know this woman!" he quickly glanced at me but I remained sitting on the armchair, unresponsive, staring at the ceiling. Staring at nothing but seeing everything.

"Maybe it's a sign of good luck." Mother smiled at me. Why was she so nice to me now? If she really loved me then she wouldn't be afraid to tell my dad to take Ms. Willas's will and shove it up his-

"Good luck! That boy has been nothing but trouble for us!" He walked up to me, "Oi! Are you listening? If you don't move I'm going to assume that you're dead." A sick smile appeared on his face, "And if you're dead I have to burry you."

"Then have fun at my funeral." I mattered, not even looking at him.

"There must be a misspelling or something, there's no way someone would give all this to that brat!" My father exclaimed as he scanned the sheet of paper once more.

"It's not like he could've met someone. No one knows that we secretly keep a kid in our house." Mother concluded.

"You!" Father pushed the piece of paper in front of my emotionless face, "Explain this!"

I scanned the contents. I was only 5 yet I had taught myself to read. Not only did she give me her house but all the money under her name and all personal items. "It is a will…" I said blankly.

"Yes, I _know_ it's a will, smart guy!" He back-handed me but I didn't even yelp.

"Robert…there's no expression on his face…honestly, it's scary…" My mother's face was pale. So this was what it was like to have someone fear you.

"Riven! Explain this! Now!" His face turned red as he pointed at the sheet. But…it was the first name he ever said my name…

"I sabotaged the lock so that I could go outside without either of you realizing it…it wasn't that hard, actually…" I admitted. It was satisfying to see that shocked look on his face.

"I _told_ you he was dangerously smart…" Mother piped up. Wow…_now_ she decides to talk and stick up for me, now they I've scored them a house and good amount of money, probably more money than they've ever seen in the lifetimes.

Father sighed, "Are you even paying attention, moron?"

I paid him no mind, I just continued to look up at the ceiling. I realized that if I had not gotten out of the house I would've have forgotten there was such a thing as a sky. It was hard to think that a bright blue sky was right behind this dirty-white ceiling. If the roof suddenly collapsed what would the sky look like? Would there be birds in the sky to cruelly remind me of my loss? Would it be cloudy, overcast, or clear? If only the ceiling wasn't there I could see it.

I was brought back from my hazy day-dreaming when I saw a crack appear on the ceiling followed by an ugly crunching noise. My dad started freaking out when another huge crack broke through. But nothing really happened after that. My dad took one more look around the filthy thing they called a 'house' and spoke his first words of wisdom, "…we're moving into Ms. Willas's house…"

* * *

"What the heck is this?" Hallen grunted at the large text book in his lap with displeasure.

"It's our history course." Grumble explained calmly.

"_History course_? This probably has the record of every human who ever lived!" Hallen exclaimed.

"Not really…it just has every single little achievement made by the _gods_…" Grumble spat out the last word in clear hatred.

Hallen looked nervous about his brother's poorly hidden inner rebellion but said nothing of it, instead he just opened the text book to the very beginning. What met with his eyes surprised him more than his brother's outright hatred. "Wait…so there was a time when there were neither gods nor demons?" Hallen asked his brother with wide eyes.

"Shhhh, it's supposed to be a secret among priests and those in training. The rest of the village is not allowed to know." Grumble hushed his shocked brother, he couldn't have the entire Healer's Hut listen in on his secret lesson with Hallen.

Their father still thought that Grumble had just went out to play with the other children whenever he disappeared. It would all be over if someone went and told the Highest Priest that Grumble was actually meeting up with his disowned brother, in some ways it would seem scandalous and would ruin the reputation of the Highest Priest for not being able to control his own children. Luckily no one in the hospital, not even the Healer herself seemed interested with 'tattling on' the lonely brothers, the tragic twins.

"But…shouldn't the elders have already told the villagers? It's their duty to share their wisdom with all of the village." Hallen protested.

"Yes but the elders have been sworn into secrecy by the gods themselves." Grumble explained.

"So…the entire village is being scammed into thinking that the gods had always been here and that the demon invasion _only_ brought the demons to earth." Hallen tried to wrap his mind around the truth when he had accepted the lie long, long ago.

A cynical air instantly took over Grumble, he stood up tall and brought his chin up in an exaggerated version of his father's overly-proud stature, "'We are not _scamming_ the village, Grumble, ignorance is bliss, and we are simply letting the village be satisfied with the knowledge they already have.'"

Hallen looked down, "…father said that?"

"He sure did," Grumble's face was almost as red as his eyes. His face returned to its regular bronze as he sighed, "I know that it may not be my place to say this, but…I feel that you are the lucky one." His eyes scanned the ground with a bloodthirsty tint, "I hate having to see his ugly mug everyday…" He looked up at his brother, his eyes now full of longing, "I wish I could just learn to be a healer so I could help people in a practical way, instead of claiming to be their leader and keeping secrets from them…"

"But brother, once you become highest priest you'll be able to change things in the village and lead people the way _you_ want…" Hallen tried to comfort his stressed brother.

"But I'm not becoming the highest priest." Grumble said with a scary amount of certainly.

"What…do you mean?"

"I already told you! I don't want to sit high and mighty above everyone just because I happen to be born differently from them, I…" Grumble trailed off, suddenly becoming very interested in the cracks along the mud wall of the hut.

"Born differently?" Hallen tilted his one head to the said. He knew that his brother most likely meant to be born of the high priest himself but Hallen could've sworn there was a little more to Grumble's words than it seemed on the surface…he always seemed to know things others didn't while never directly reviling it…it was terribly frustrating.

* * *

Ms. Wllas's house was much, much bigger than was the one-bedroom, one-story house in the poorer part of the city, better yet her upper floor had a great view. The very first thing I did when I first entered the house was run up the stairs and stare out the window into the city street. It reminded me too much of the apartment I had shared with my real mother.

"Ooof! Hey, kid! Are you going to help me with these or what?" my noisy father barked from the top of the stairs.

I paid him no mind.

"Oh, Robert, give him a break! He's only six!" Mother came up the stairs behind him, also carrying a stack of boxes and being just as loud as him. "Plus, I have the last boxes right here."

We had left our furniture at the old…'house', because the new house was already fully furnished from being left behind. So we didn't have that much stuff to bring. I looked around the room I had run in to look out the window. It was like no other room I had seen before. Cartoon-looking animals were painted on the walls with pleasant combinations of bright and soft colors. There was multiple strange pieces of furniture throughout the room. Against the wall there was something that looked like a low table with cushions on it with what looked like cage railing around it but unlike a cage it didn't have a top.

After they had set the boxes down they both walked into the strangely decorated room.

"Well, it's a two bedroom house. There's just the master bedroom and the nursery. So where does the kid sleep?" Mother murmured thinking that I wouldn't be able to hear her.

"But there also the option of the couch," Father commented with a sick smile, "Actually, let's just stick him in the crib, then we'll know he won't be able to get out again."

I tilted my head to the side, what's a crib? But 'sticking me inside' something didn't sound very fun so I tried to bolt out the door. Unfortunately I was scooped up by my father before I even had the chance. He threw me onto the low table with the cushion on top, which I then assumed was a crib, then pulled the bars up. I looked out the window. It was already growing dark, and I was exhausted from the excitement of today. If they wanted me to sleep here tonight, then so be it but they'll find a nasty surprise when they wake up.

But sleep didn't come as naturally as I thought it would. The crib was much better than sleeping under a couch with dust bunnies as stuff animals but it was still uncomfortable. Being in the crib brought back strange memories from long ago and replayed in my mind over and over, I almost felt like I was going to go mad. They were memories of my birth mother. She had me until I was three and we only had one bedroom in the small but clean apartment. So of course she had put me in a crib. It was only when I was in one did I realize that this wasn;t my first time, that I still remembered having some happiness.

Before the bars on the crib represented security, I would peek through at my sleeping mother on the bed right next to the crib. The bars separated me from her but they also brought the promise that she would always come for me in the morning and that she would pick me up and hug me. But now the bars represented imprisonment with the promise that my prison master would greet me with his ugly, sneering face in the morning. I looked again at the animals on the walls. They were exotic animals that you'd only find in Africa or in a zoo. Is this how they felt? Is this what it feels like to be a caged creature? Just an animal.

I held up my hand in the darkness and stared at it. It looked pale from the moonlight flooding in through the window but it looked like a human hand nonetheless. As long as my hand looked like that then I was human…and I was going to find some way to make my father pay for all that he had done. Just you wait…


End file.
